Lone Wolf
by Ataraninja
Summary: A dark past, a darker future, what Atara didn't know then she knows now and she's ready to take revenge for the events that shaped her dark life, but will she destroy the one she loves in the process? AU, Rated M for hints of adult content.
1. Chapter 1 The Team

Lone Wolf

**Intro**: So this is my first chapter of Lone Wolf, my first Naruto fanfic. Please tell me what you think of it and give me reviews. Please, I'm begging for a little constructive criticism.

**Disclaimer**: I don't own Naruto or any of the original Naruto characters. I do own my own OC's, which so far, yes so far, include Atara, Assai, Neko, Kaji, and Tenshi. You may not use Atara, Assai, or Neko.

**The Team**, **Chapter 1**-

Atara was twiddling her fingers through her long black hair, as she waited for the cutie Assai to come by. She didn't think of him like the other girls did, maybe that's why he liked her. The point was that he'd asked if she'd wait for him and go to the academy for the choosing of their genin teams together. Atara was normally not the social type, but Assai was like some sort of magnet. He always took her mind off of worrying about her past and her parents who she'd never known, and put it back where it belonged, the present. He told her how worrying about the past would keep you from having a future.

Atara had always listened to him, knowing it was true. And she trusted him, something she did not have toward anyone else so if he said he'd do something, she'd believe him. So there she was, waiting by a water fountain for the boy, who was now ten minutes late to arrive. Noticing that the fountain had a stone fox statue at the top, she thought, _Curious_. As she looked at it, she did not even notice that Assai had just walked up to her.

"Hey," Assai said, noticing that a group of girls was staring at him. "Oh, hey," Atara said shortly. "So, you ready to go, Atara?" he asked. Atara stood up before saying so quietly that no one but Assai could hear, "Yeah." She let her hair fall down flat covering one side of her face.

A skinny red-headed girl rushed by them in a flash to the academy. Atara and Assai watched her run by and into the building. "Aren't you glad you're not an academy student anymore?" Assai asked Atara as they neared the building. A lot of the girls laughed and whispered as Atara came in with Assai, but Sakura and Ino were storming their way through the doors to try and sit by Sasuke.

Atara went to the front of the classroom once inside, only a row down from the red-head. At first Assai did not recognize her, but then he said, "Oh! Neko, I didn't even recognize you. Where have you been for the last year?" Assai seemed confused about where his friend had gone. "I'll tell you l—who is she?" Neko's face was filled with a dark flame now, jealously. "Oh—yeah, Neko this is Atara. She's new here, sorta." Trying to explain, how she was new was—difficult.

"Oh. Well hello Atara, I'm Neko, Assai's BEST friend," Neko said stressing the "best" part. "Okay..," Atara said quietly.

Atara decided to pull out a sketchbook and a pencil to do a few drawings. It was her favorite pastime, drawing her friends in different poses or fighting nins from other villages. Now she drew Neko, flirting with Assai, who was clearly trying to ignore her. As if she'd had eyes in the back of her head, Neko was doing exactly what Atara drew. When Assai looked at it, he laughed, because Atara had drawn herself as a very small person, chibi-style, with huge scared eyes looking at Assai, who had turned into an angry roaring demon and was attempting to bite off Neko's head.

As soon as Assai had laughed the door opened, and Iruka-sensei walked in, followed by many other senseis, and all the students assumed these would be their new senseis (which they were).

Atara did not pay much attention to who was on what teams or who their senseis were; she only listened for her name, wishing her sensei would not be Kakashi. No, Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke were the unlucky ones who got him, with his hentai-freak self. After all the names were called and teams were issued, Atara, Assai, and Neko found themselves to be the only ones left without a sensei. Iruka said, "So…Atara, Assai, and Neko, stay after everyone else leaves and you will be given your sensei then. The rest of you are dismissed."

Naruto said loudly, "But our sensei's not here." "Oh, yeah that's Kakashi for you; you might as well pull up a pillow and a comfy chair." Naruto's jaw dropped to the ground, Sasuke sighed, and Sakura blinked her eyes at Sasuke in a flirty manner, causing Ino to glare at her evilly. After all the students had their headbands, the teams with sensei's left the building.

Now all that were left were Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, Atara, Assai, Neko, and Iruka-sensei. Atara continued her drawing as Naruto started complaining about his sensei being late. Sasuke had retreated to the row behind Atara, where Neko was still sitting, so that he could get away from Sakura. Sakura was busy fussing at her self, something about "screwing it all up" and "never love me." Assai had the same thoughts as Sasuke, but seeing how Neko was his friend he did not show them like Sasuke did.

Iruka said, "Well, since Kakashi seems like he's not going to show up any time soon, I guess I'll have to give you three your team now." Naruto looked up wondering why Iruka-sensei did not want anyone to know about their team. Iruka continued, "Atara, Assai, and Neko, you have all been placed in the fire elemental team. Your sensei's name is Kaji and he is a master of fire jutsus. Your fighting styles are the type needed for the training he will give you which is why the three of you were the only ones chosen. You will learn, of course, the standard jutsus but you will have the opportunity to master jutsus your classmates do not even know about. I hope you enjoy your sensei; word from the hokage is that Kaji can be pretty tough. He will be waiting for you outside, and, if he's not there, look at the ramen shop or some other food place. As for Kakashi's team, good luck." Iruka leaves the six genins by themselves.

Sasuke says, "Humf. It must not be all that special because I use fire jutsus and I'm not in that team." Assai says, "I didn't know there was such a thing as an elemental team." Atara says to Assai, "Wanna go get some ramen?" Naruto's stomach growled as soon as she said the word "ramen." Assai laughed then said, "Sure, it beats looking for our sensei." Neko looked like she would explode in anger, thinking that Atara was flirting with Assai.

Atara thought silently, _We're not going to get ramen—ok maybe just one bowl._ Assai said to Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura, "Bye, see yah later." Under his breath he muttered, "A lot later." Neko giggled slightly.

The three of them walked out leaving the others to wait for a very late Kakashi. Once they got to the ramen shop, everyone but Atara was surprised to see a man with long blue hair and fiery brown eyes. He could sure scarf down some ramen. Assai and Atara thought he looked kind of like Naruto eating bowl after bowl of ramen…making the dish-washing lady's job a lot harder. The man turned to the students, saw their headbands, and asked, "Where's your sensei?" When Atara stared at him pointedly, he said, "Oh. I'm Kaji."

Neko smiled. "I'm N—." Kaji put a finger to her lips and said, "Neko, you're a perky girl with a huge crush on someone who is very close to you but you don't let it stop you from fighting to your standards. You mainly like to use defensive moves and healing techniques."

He points at Atara. "You're Atara, a shy quiet girl who worries about the past a lot. Your fighting style can be merciless at times, and you never allow yourself to lose. Your opponent will have to be stronger than you if he or she wants to win." He turns his eyes to Assai.

"Assai, every girl your age, except one, wants to date you because they think you're cute. You hate it and you wish they would leave you alone. For this reason, you want to become a husband to someone who sees you for who you really are inside and not what you look like. Your fighting style is balanced: for every offensive move you can perform, you can perform a defensive move that is just as strong. If you lose a fight, you simply get back up and try again."

"Wow," Assai and Neko said simultaneously. Atara said dully, "I figured you'd do something like that." Kaji grinned at this then asked, "Who wants ramen?" Atara was already seated before he finished the sentence. She was followed by Assai and Neko who was looking pretty steamed that Assai had sat next to Atara. Kaji ordered ramen for all three of his new students before telling them to meet him at the East Gate. Neko complained, "But it's almost dark!" "I know. One hour," Kaji said as he walked away.

End: Ok so there's not a lot of action yet and you probably think Kaji is psychic or something but that's for you to find out whether he is or not. Atara is supposed to be kinda laid back and not really social, think Sasuke, only not psycho. Neko is, as you can see, totally in "love" with Assai (if you want to use that word to describe her feelings for him). Oh and Kaji may seem kinda like Kakashi right now but he's actually quite a serious person. -

Translations for their names will come later, but of course, if you can't wait that long, you should check out this website.  hair hangs just past her shoulders in straight waves the color of a raven's wing. Her ruby red eyes reflect the world around her, seeming to have the mysteries of life hidden in them. Her face is framed by her straight bangs highlighting her pale skin. She wears a bikini strap shirt in silky red, over which a dark purple fish net style wrap around (short sleeves, ends above her waist, tied off in front, has a sharp vee neckline revealing her shirt underneath). She wears a pair of pitch black baggy cargo pants, which end at her black ninja sandals. Her head band hangs around her neck on a black cloth. She has a small chain belt hanging around her waist at an angle, the end dangling to her right knee just above her kunai holster.

Another outfit of Atara's is a white vee neck shirt, the neckline trimmed in red and a sleeveless fishnet shirt underneath which can be seen only near the neckline of her shirt. She wears short shorts with the ends rolled up. On her right leg is her kunai holster and she has two curved daggers rested in their sheaths on her belt. She also wears her black fingerless gloves.

Neko

Her hair is held up in two high pony tails on either side of her head, hanging in tame spikes. It is the color of candied cherries (the ones you get in a jar), and two long slanted bangs frame her face. Her spaghetti strap shirt is soft white, and ends just past her bust line. Her pants flare with a boot cut in rich sapphire blue, and an over laying short skirt in dark creamy tan with matching slits halfway up the length of the skirt. She has long gloves that end halfway to her shoulder in solid soft sky blue. It has a snow white band and inch from the end, which is about an inch wide, and a second just under it in sapphire blue. On the top of the hand of the glove a small image of a chibi lion head rests out lined in sapphire, filled in white with a sapphire tail tipped in white curled over the head. Around her waist rests a thick leather belt in midnight black with a pouch for her shuriken and kunai. On her shoulders rests a light tan colored cape that ends just at her knees. Black ninja sandals adorn her feet. On a black cloth her head band is wrapped around her rights hip.


	2. Chapter 2 The Forest

Lone Wolf

**Intro**: This is my second Chapter of Lone Wolf. Atara was originally a character not intended for the purpose of a fanfic, but an RPG that I played, so I'm having some difficulties making her fit into her team. So tell me how I'm doing, please. And yes, I tend to type very long chapters.

**Disclaimer**: I don't own Naruto or any of the original Naruto characters. I do own my own OC's, which so far, yes so far, include Atara, Assai, Neko, Kaji, and Tenshi. You may not use Atara, Assai, or Neko.

By the way, the idea of them having partners was not mine; it is my cousin's **hinatanarutoneji. **She has three stories, Naruto-fanfics, they are Guardian Lion, Blood and the Leaf, and the newest Heir to the Kitsune Clan, for which I am the beta of all.

**The Forest, Chap 2-**

Atara and Assai were sitting on the fox fountain. Assai asked, "What do you think we're going to do in an hour?" Atara shrugged. Neko cried, "I want to go to bed in an hour!" Atara put her head in her hands as she quietly thought about their sensei's tactics. After half an hour or so, the three of them were still sitting by the fountain. Atara heard a noise from the shadows and she tilted her head a little bit towards the direction of the sound. She looked at Assai and Neko out of the corner of her eye. They both looked back confused. Atara pulled a shuriken out of the holster around her waist. With one swift movement, she flung it toward the exact spot where the shadow person had been standing. The three genins heard an "Ugh" as he was hit in the shoulder with it. Atara walked over to the shadowed person who now lied on the ground. She looks down and pulls him out of the shadows so she can see him. With his face flat on the floor, they can not tell who he is, but his blonde hair is a huge giveaway. "Naruto..," Assai growls. Neko bursts out in a fit of laughter. Atara grins slightly. They turn him over and he jumps up and says, "Ha! I got you guys!" while pumping his fist in the air. Atara's grin goes away as she smacks him in the jaw with her fist.

They leave Naruto there as there are only fifteen minutes left now and head for the east gate. When they arrive, they find that their sensei is already there. A woman is standing behind him. "Well it looks like you finally made it." He looked at the woman who had an arm on his shoulder and whispered something to her. Her face became very pale and her eyes wide. Atara wondered what he'd told her, but didn't ask. Kaji threw a sleeping bag to each one of them. Atara and Assai caught theirs but Neko, who'd been looking at Assai, got hit in the head with hers. She got up mumbling about "needs to warn us" and "so embarrassing." Assai was about to laugh when Kaji came over to Neko and pulled her aside.

"You can't let a little thing like a crush stop you from paying attention. What if that would have been ten shuriken flying at your face? Focus!" Kaji said to her, stressing the last bit. Neko shook her head and said softly, "Sorry."

Atara, meanwhile, had been looking over to where the purple-haired lady stood. She thought she saw what appeared to be three small metal cages with weird symbols on the locks, but when the lady saw her looking she stood in front of them. Kaji walked back over to the woman, whispered something to her again, and then said to his students, "Okay I just want to tell you not to freak out when I tell you this. You're all going to spend the night in the forest. All you can take with you is this sleeping bag, your weapons, this fire starter," he throws one to each of his pupils, "oh and please, your clothes."

…North Gate 10 mins later…

Neko carried her bag with the fire starter stuck down in the center to keep it dry, up to the open gate. _Obviously someone was expecting us to be here_, she thought. "Okay, Neko, you have to set up camp for the night and then meet back at the east gate at ten o'clock tomorrow morning." Neko nodded her head and waved goodbye to Atara and Assai. Kaji gave her a small box-like object before she left. Atara had seen it but did not know what it was and Assai clearly didn't care. She walked through the gate and disappeared within the dense forest.

…West Gate 5 mins later (they're traveling faster now -)

Kaji stood by the gate as Assai said goodbye to Atara. "Hey, whatever you do make sure you stay safe." Atara nodded her head and hugged his neck in a friendly way. He then walked up to the gate, and Atara saw Kaji hand him something. Soon he disappeared just like Neko had. Kaji turned to Atara, "Are you okay?" Atara nodded and looked up at Kaji. "Yeah, I'm fine." "Well let's go," Kaji said.

…South Gate 4 mins later…

Kaji walked up behind Atara and said, "Here." He hands her a gold bracelet with shiny pearl set in it. "What's this for?" Atara asked, looking at the shiny metal. "Oh, well I just thought I'd give it to you since I don't have any use of it." Atara muttered under her breath, "Sure."

She walked on through the gate, pulling a string out of her pocket to tie the bag around her back. Her fire starter was stuck in her bag like Neko's had been, but somehow it got loosened and it fell out. She continued to walk, not noticing the shadow that rushed behind her picking it up. The forest was dark and Atara could hardly see if it weren't for an incident she'd had with a shadow creature a year ago. She stopped walking, closed her eyes and reopened them after a few seconds to reveal blood red eyes with slightly pointed pupils (halfway between a slit and an oval). With the energy from the ramen still going, she decided she'd try to go the long way back to the east gate and meet up with Assai. Suddenly she heard a noise. She scanned the forest with her eyes moving as little as possible. She turned around to find a dark shadow creeping up behind her. It wasn't big so she kept walking with the feeling that it would follow her. Her feelings were correct. The shadow behind her kept making noise as it followed her. Once it stopped and then sounded like it had pounced on something. Then she heard the crunching of a beetle in the thing's mouth and smiled.

Atara had made much progress with her eyes allowing her to see in the dark. Now she searched for a clearing. Alas (just felt like using that word), her lucky spree wasn't over as she soon found one. Laying the sleeping bag on the ground, she went around the edges of the clearing gathering wood for a fire so that she could see her mystery stalker. The pile of wood for the fire was about two feet high before she went to find the fire starter. When she looked it was gone! Then she felt something round roll into her hand. She grabs it, and pulls it in front of her. She can now tell that it is her fire starter (what a nice shadow creature).

With no clue how to start a fire with that thing, she eventually gives up and unrolls her sleeping bag. When she turns back to face the pile of wood she finds that it is not a pile of wood anymore; it's a fire. She looks through the flames at the dark shadow that has been stalking her the whole night. It walks around to sit in front of her. The baby panther's whitish blue eyes stare at Atara. When it sees her eyes, it sneezes making her laugh. She returns her eyes to normal now that there is some light to see by and lies down in the sleeping bag for a few minutes before the panther walks up to her and lies down beside her. All she can hear as she slowly drifts into her dream world is the soft purring of the baby panther next to her. The last thing she says before she dozes off is, "Yabun…"

…With Assai…

Assai had been walking since he got in the forest and was now exhausted. He could hear things around him walking but he did not get scared. He was going to find Atara so they could go back to the gate together, but he wasn't having much luck. _I wish I had night vision so I could see where I'm going_, he thought as he picked himself up from a brush with a tree limb. He thought he saw smoke rising up from the forest but wasn't quite sure if it was real or if he was sleepwalking now. Then he heard an unusual sound, the howling of a wolf. It was so close to him that his hair flew opposite the direction of the wolf pup that was looking up at him with amber eyes. The white star around her left eye made her glow like a night star. "Hoshi," Assai said to the wolf. Hoshi wagged her tail, and then she howled in happiness.

…A little bit farther away…

Yabun raised his head sharply; he'd heard something, a wolf in the forest. He did not wake Atara up but stayed awake waiting for the intruders to come near.

…Back with Assai…

Hoshi was now playfully tugging at Assai's loose clothing, which now had a rip in the sleeve of his jacket. Although the wolf did not come up to his knees, it could jump pretty high. Finally Assai got too tired to go on so he rolled out his sleeping bag. Hoshi ran on, scouting probably. Assai was terribly confused by the fire starter and threw it to the side thinking it was broken or something. Hoshi returned jumping up and down and running back and forth from Assai to the woods. Assai ignored him, but then Hoshi jumped on his back whining. "Okay, okay…" Assai was getting very annoyed now so he followed the wolf through the narrow strip of woods and came out in a clearing. There he saw Atara's fire burning and a black panther at Atara's side. Hoshi looked at Assai and Assai looked at Atara with the panther and then at his ring with its yellow topaz. It was all starting to make sense to him now. The fire, the animals, and the forest even; it was all coming together. He rushed back to his sleeping bag and picked up the fire starter.

When he returned to the clearing, he saw Hoshi and the panther playing under Atara's watchful eyes. "Hey, so you got one too?" Atara asked looking at the wolf. "So who's that?" Assai asked pointing at the panther. "Yabun. I think." Atara looked at him for a while. "Well at least that's what I was saying right after I found him. I was falling asleep so I don't know. When I woke up, I thought it had been a dream but he jumped on me and started licking my face so I know he's not a dream." Assai laughed. "This is Hoshi, Star." Atara looked at the wolf's face. "Sensible. Well I'm going to go back to bed," Atara said lying back down in her sleeping bag. Yabun walked over to her and laid his front paws over her stomach, protecting her watching Assai as he put his sleeping bag down close to Atara's. Yabun growled under his breath and Assai had to pull it over about two feet before Yabun would stop. Hoshi was sleeping by the fire, her grey coat illuminated by the flames like moonlight. Assai lie down in his sleeping bag and soon fell asleep.

…With Neko…

She was fumbling around in the darkness trying to find a good place to sleep. Unfortunately, like Assai, she had no way of seeing in the dark so she was out of luck. A sudden roar scared her making her fall over into a pile of leaves. Before she knew what had hit her, she found herself being hit on the side of her head by a small paw. The force was strong enough to knock her out.

Neko woke up to a burning fire. A lioness was sitting near it basking in its warmth. It looked at her with its steady emerald green eyes. Its coat was shiny and golden like the sun and it had dark gold on its ears. "Tenpin," Neko said. Tenpin purred softly as Neko fell back to sleep.

…Next Morning- Kaji's House…

"Well, I wonder if they survived the night," Kaji asked the lady with the purple hair. "That was so cruel, sending them out there alone," she said repulsively. "They needed it, well Neko did anyway. She's so focused on Assai liking someone other than her that she's not staying focused. Do you think Atara notices?" "Well of course, not that she cares. She won't let Assai get in the way of her becoming a great ninja. Oh and I found Naruto lying by the fountain where you said your three hung out while waiting for you." "Yeah?" Kaji asked confused. "He was knocked out and had a busted lip. I wonder what, or who, could have done that?" Kaji burst out in laughter at this. "You're kidding." "No. No I'm not," she said in a serious voice. This caused him to laugh even more. He finished his breakfast, and then said, "I've got to go get them now and see how they did with their new…partners."

…With Assai and Atara…

Assai was still sleeping sound when Atara woke up. She sat by the fire watching the grey wolf and the panther playing. It was a funny site actually, considering that a wolf is related to a dog and the panther to a cat. Hoshi was quite strong for being so small as was Yabun. Atara's stomach growled and the two looked up at her. Hoshi ran off into the woods followed by Yabun. Atara shrugged her shoulders and lay back down on the sleeping bag. She didn't sleep but instead watched the sun rise. After about an hour or so, Hoshi and Yabun return, each carrying a fat squirrel, Yabun looking like he'd disposed of a third. After a few minutes, Atara has them roasting on the fire, the smell floating through the air.

Assai stirs in his sleep now and he finally wakes up rubbing his eyes. "What's cooking?" Atara looks away from the fire and says, "Breakfast." "I didn't know you cooked." Atara shrugged again. "You never know what you'll learn about your friends in the forest." "Yeah..," Assai said letting his voice fade out into the silence.

After they'd eaten their breakfast, they packed up their stuff. Assai said, "We better go find Neko and see if she's okay." "Why?" Atara asked. "I know she can be annoying but she's my friend and now my teammate," Assai explained. Atara nodded her head, and then she looked at him with squinted eyes. "You know she's crushing on you right?" Atara asked him. "Yeah, she has been ever since we met. I was like five then." "Oh, and have you always just ignored her flirts?" Atara asked very inquisitively. "Yeah always," Assai answered. "But don't you want to get married when you get older? That's what Sensei said." "He was right and he was also right about me wanting to marry someone who sees me for who I am not just what I look like." "Oh," Atara said quietly her eyes shifting back and forth because she knew where he was going with this conversation. They were walking in the direction of the north gate where Neko had been left now. "Remember how he said that everyone my age but one likes me because I'm cute?" Assai asked looking at Atara. She shook her head slowly. "Yes." "Well Neko isn't that one. I mean I know she's my friend, but it's the truth." "Then who is?" Atara asked. "You don't know?" "No, tell me," she replied looking away. Assai stopped and looked at her, she looked back her eyes questioning him. "You."

End: Oooo cliffhanger there right? No, only if you think so. I just figured I'd stop, even though I haven't gotten to them finding Neko yet. I just didn't want to make it a really big chapter so I have broken it in 2.

**_Read and review Please_**

There may also be some pairing issues with Neko since there is no way that she's getting Assai, so I'm trying to decide if I'll be doing a fan voting sort of thing or just choose myself, but I'm leaning toward the first choice since my mind is temporarily blank. If I do, her options will be any of the Konoha **_male_** genins (they are in the same group as Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura). Notice that I stressed the male part, in other words, other girls are not an option. Neko don't roll like that, nor does Atara but she has a pre-chosen pairing, courtesy of moi.


	3. Chapter 3 Terror in The Forest

Lone Wolf

**Intro**: Right, so chapter three will start with Neko, which is happening at the same time as the events with Assai and Atara, then they catch back up with each other.

**Disclaimer**: I don't own Naruto or any of the original Naruto characters. I do own my own OC's, which so far, yes, so far, are Atara, Assai, Neko, Kaji, and Tenshi. You may not use Atara, Assai, or Neko.

**Terror in The Forest, Chapter 3**

"Aww… you're so cute Tenpin," Neko was saying. Tenpin was purring loudly at her comments. Neko was scratching her behind her ear when she heard a noise in the bushes. "Tenpin?" Tenpin hummed saying, "Yeah?" "What was that?" Neko asked a little scared. She pulled out two kunai, one for each hand, and backed away from the bushes. She could now hear someone talking and she thought she recognized a voice but wasn't sure.

Tenpin ran into the bushes roaring in her lion cub voice (clue: Simba from Lion King). "Tenpin!" Neko screamed. "Come back!" She ran after the lion cub, kunai in hand. Suddenly she heard a boy say, "Oh crap!" and a thud as someone hit the ground. Then she heard a panther hissing at Tenpin and a wolf's howling. "Call her off, Neko!" the boy shouted. _Neko?_ She thought. _He knows my name? Assai! _

The next thing she saw was a lion cub being chased away by a wolf pup and a panther kit. Tenpin ran behind her and jumped on her shoulders growling and hissing at them. "Yabun!" a girl called out. The panther ran back in the bushes and Neko saw Atara walk out with it in her arms stroking its forehead. Assai followed her saying, "Hoshi come!" The wolf pup ran up to him tugging on his sleeve, causing it to make a ripping sound. "Great now I'm going to need a new jacket," he said to the pup jokingly. Hoshi looked up at him with mischievous eyes.

Neko looked at him confused. "So is it just me or does this whole thing seem kinda weird?" she asked. Assai answered, "I think I figured it out. It wasn't a coincidence that we were all followed by our new partners. Our sensei planned it."

Atara interrupted, "That's what these are for." She indicated her bracelet with the pearl. Assai looked at the gold ring with the yellow topaz in it and Neko pulled out a gold necklace with an emerald pendant. "Look at your partners eyes. It seems like a binding between us is formed with our partners as long as we wear these. Neko take yours off." "What?! If she's not bound to me, she might attack me!" Neko shrieked. "Then hand her to me," Atara said putting Yabun down and taking Tenpin. "Now take it off."

Neko took off the necklace warily. Tenpin's eyes flashed then became a more opaque shade of green. They now looked milky. "You can put it back on now," Assai said. "Okay Assai your turn." Atara handed Tenpin back to Neko after she'd put the necklace back on. Now she held Hoshi and had the same effect. Then Assai held Yabun while Atara took her bracelet off. The panther's eyes flashed violently before becoming an opaque shade of white with no pupil.

"Whatever they are, they're not just a panther, a wolf, and a lion," Atara concluded. Neko asked timidly, "Then what are they?" Atara did not reply. She only shook her head. Assai looked at the bright sky and said, "We'll worry with that when we get back." Atara and Neko looked up and said, "Uh huh."

…East Gate 9:55 AM…

"They're going to be late," Kaji was saying. "Oh don't worry," the lady with purple hair said. "You always say that Tenshi." "That's only because I happen to be an optimistic person. Look I'll go find them and see if they're okay if you want me to," Tenshi said (yay the purple-haired lady has a name now). "No! They have to do this alone," Kaji insisted. "Then stop worrying," Tenshi said like a mother's friend calming her over her missing child.

…Meanwhile in the forest…

"Okay so we might be a little late, but you guys don't think he'll be mad do you?" Neko was asking worriedly. Assai did not reply, he just wanted to get out of the forest and go take a nap on his comfy bed. Atara's thoughts were filled with the things she'd seen in the eyes of their partners. It just wasn't normal to her. Something about them gave her an eerie feeling, but when she looked at Yabun his eyes were filled with curiosity, not evil.

Assai stopped the others as they reached the open gate. "Yep, they're waiting for us," he said, turning to face the girls. "So what do you girls want to do?" he questioned. "What else is there to do?" Atara asked. "We have to get answers. Something about this is so weird, I just know something's up, and Kaji is behind it. He sent us into the forest, why? So we could find these guys."

"How did he know they were here?" Neko asked, afraid of their sensei now. "They let them loose here, and these tokens, our gifts from Kaji, are what led them to us," Atara answered. "Wait a sec, how do you know he let them out?" Neko questioned Atara, as if trying to dig something up on her. "I saw the cages before we left—would you stop it already!" Atara exclaimed, glaring at Neko. "What?" Neko asked. "Stop brushing against me!" she yelled before realizing that Kaji and the lady could hear from the gate.

"Um, Atara. That wasn't Neko. She's standing in front of you," Assai said looking at Atara confused. "But then who did it?" Atara asked. Suddenly, she fell to the ground as her body was engulfed in a cold feeling.

Assai rushed to her side, picking her upper body up and resting it in his lap. "Atara! Wake up!" he exclaimed, as Kaji and Tenshi walked up behind the three genins.

…Atara's House 10:30AM…

Atara's eyes opened slightly, allowing some of the light from her bedroom to flood into them. Four figures stood by her bed, one closer than the others. As Atara's eyes opened wider, she could recognize Assai standing the closest to her, and behind him were Neko, Tenshi, and Kaji, all looking worried. Suddenly, she was engulfed in fear at what she'd seen while she was sleeping.

The dark landscape, covered in fresh blood, and bodies with jagged weapons stuck in them, their wielders lying with their hands on the handles of the weapons all came back to Atara. But then she saw one person in particular, Neko, kneeling over Assai's body which was lying, covered in blood and Hoshi, with a dozen kunai sticking out of his back, laying on top of him. She ran to the scene to find Neko crying, and then pointing to something behind Atara as she felt something brush against her back. Sudden pain drifted through her body slowly, agonizingly. Blood dripped from the long wound that the sword had left on her. As Neko got up to fight off the beast that had killed Assai and Atara, she, too, was struck down and both girls' bodies fell onto Assai's.

Abruptly, Atara felt someone shaking her. It was Assai, and he looked scared, more than when she'd collapsed. "Atara, what happened? Your—your eyes are…" Assai said fearfully, then his voice trailed off. Atara blinked hard. "My eyes are what?" she asked, thinking they'd gone back to normal. Assai held up a mirror for her. When Atara looked, her eyes were still red and they were swirling with the images from her dream. She closed her eyes for a few minutes, and then opened them back to find that they were still red. "No…" she said before burying her face into Assai's chest, crying. Assai looked at Neko, who did not appear angry for once, and then at Kaji and Tenshi who were in shock after seeing her eyes.

Kaji said to Tenshi, "We should leave them alone for a while. Maybe if she tells Assai and Neko what happened, they'll tell us." Tenshi replied, "Unless it was too horrible." With that, she and Kaji walked out of the room to leave them in privacy.

Once the door shut and she'd heard them go downstairs, Atara released Assai and had both Neko and him to sit down on her bed. "When I passed out, I was having a nightmare. I don't know if it's real or not, but it involved us," Atara began. Assai came closer to her so that he could comfort her. Atara looked down at her bed, then told her story.

…after the story (and many sniffles and tears)…

Atara leaned over and started crying softly on Assai's shoulder as she finished her story. Neko stared at Atara, wondering if the nightmare was real, herself. Assai was struck by fear as well. He sat on the bed, listening to Atara's crying and eventually he felt a tear slip from his eyes, too. Neko was now the only one not crying. "There's no way it could have been a vision about what is to come," she finally said arrogantly. Assai gave her an angry look. "Oh, really, why not?" he replied curtly. "Because, there's no way that one guy could kill as many ninjas as she says there were. And did she even recognize any of them?" Neko shouted.

"Look, would you just stop it Neko, can't you see that she's upset about this? If it was a vision, she'll probably have another sooner or later and it may be in more detail than this one. Maybe the reason she didn't recognize them is because she was more worried about you and me than she was the other dead guys!" Assai shouted back. In a quieter tone, he said, "I think you should thank her for caring about you as much as she did. Even though it was not real, it was to her and she did, in her dream, exactly what she would have done in real life." Assai looked at Atara, who was still crying on his shoulder, and wrapped his arms around her in a peaceful embrace. Neko got off of the bed and left the room without another word.

Atara looked up at him and said quietly, "Thanks for defending me. I know she was your friend." "Don't worry about it," he responded. "I'm sorry to bring something like this up on you so quickly. I was just scared. I don't know what happened, suddenly I'm having these visions of people dying. It's disturbing." Assai looked at Atara's face. "Not as disturbing as others," he said on a serious note. Atara held his hand and said, "I'm sorry, I should have told you a long time ago. It's just that I thought if you knew, you'd not want to be my friend. The only reason I'm so quiet is because I've had to live by myself for almost my entire life. How do you think I knew how to cook? It had an effect on my spirit and now here I am. You are my first real friend."

Assai hugged Atara before saying, "Atara, nothing could have kept us apart. I've always been your friend. When we were kids, some of the others were making fun of you because they said you acted weird, and you climbed to the top of that tall oak tree. I waited for hours for you to come down. It got dark and you still hadn't come down, but I didn't leave you. Then you fell asleep and fell out from the very top branches and I caught you. That morning, you woke up and you were at the bottom of the tree, safe. You see, Atara, I've always been there. And remember when we had first started school at the Academy to be ninjas, some kids had stolen your daggers, the only remnant of your family history. I tracked them down and put them on your doorstep wrapped in red paper and tied with a piece of old string. I never followed the group and made fun of you, I always tried to stop them because I had seen what happened to your parents."

"You know what happened to them?" Atara interrupted. "Yes, I was there when the—wait, you don't know?" Assai said, stopping mid sentence.

End: Okay, so now you know a little bit about how Assai and Atara met up with each other. Later you'll find out how Neko met Assai, but when, well I can't tell you. Okay so I guess you're dying to find out what happened to Atara's parents, but you'll have to wait until chapter 4, and yes, I believe you could say that Atara and Assai are now bf and gf. We'll see about next chapter, okay, Tata.

Although, the only pairing that there will be for a while is Assai and Atara, Neko will be paired off with one of Konoha's **male** ninjas. The options are Naruto, Sasuke, Rock Lee, Chouji, Shikamaru, Neji, and if I'm missing any please tell (and keep it in their age group). So just think about it and try to decide who you want her to be with so that when the voting starts you'll already have your mind made up about who you want for her.


	4. Chapter 4 The Truth

Lone Wolf

**Intro**: Here comes Chapter 4 of Lone Wolf. This chapter is mainly a continuation of the past of Atara as told by Assai. So Atara is going to find out what happened to her parents. The rest is a secret.

**Disclaimer**: I don't own Naruto or any of the original Naruto characters. I do own my own OC's, which so far, yes so far, include Atara, Assai, Neko, Kaji, and Tenshi. You may not use Atara, Assai, or Neko.

**_Recap_**: "I never followed the group and made fun of you, I always tried to stop them because I had seen what happened to your parents."

"You know what happened to them?" Atara interrupted. "Yes, I was there when the—wait, you don't know?" Assai said, stopping mid sentence.

**The Truth, Chapter 4**

"No, I always was told that they had left Konoha never to return. I thought that they were both still alive but did not love me and so they left me alone," Atara said as she finally stopped crying. "No, Atara, your mother loved you. She would have never left you. The village did not want to tell you this story so as soon as these events began to take place they carried you away, but they did not see me." Atara asked, "So what happened?"

"There is something that I don't think you knew about your father. He could control fire, whether it was jutsus, or just a wildfire, he could control it. Your father was angry about something and he burned off the southern side of Konoha, which is why now there is such green grass. Your mother tried to stop him, and with his blade he slashed her across her back and she fell to the ground dead, only a few feet away from me. Then Kakashi arrived on the scene to find that your dad had already killed your mom. He asked, 'Why did you do this, Takai Akuma?' Your dad said evilly, 'Konoha is weak. It was stupid of me to marry this wretch in the first place.' He motioned to your mom, and then continued, 'Now I'll have a weak daughter, too.' Kakashi remained calm as he said, 'But your daughter already shows more promise than any of the other students, even the boys.' 'It doesn't matter. She will never be strong enough to defeat me. She will always be a weak Konoha ninja.' 'Defeat you?' 'Yes, when I return I will destroy all of Konoha with fire and everyone in it. This includes my daughter. If she is not strong enough to defeat me, she will die.' And then your father just vanished, leaving me hidden in the bushes and Kakashi standing there seeming so dumb. Then he turned his eyes toward me before he finally left, heading in the direction of the Hokage and the others who had gathered in the center of the village." Assai looked at Atara's eyes, which were now filled with fear.

Atara thought silently, _He was able to control fire. I was put on this fire elemental team. He wants to kill me and if I don't get stronger, I'll end up just like in my dream—my dream! _"Assai, my dream is one of my possible futures. We have to get Kaji to start training us in the elemental art of fire. He, too, knows this story, and that is why he put me on this team. Kakashi must have told the others about what my father said. The kids weren't told of my father's treachery, so they picked on me. It all makes so much sense. I bet that if it hadn't been for my past and my father's promise, then someone else would've taken my place on this team. In fact, this could be the reason why the three of us were chosen for this team. Kaji must have watched us since we were very young and seen the way you acted toward me. He also knew that you and Neko were friends so he put us all on this team together so that we could cooperate. It wasn't random, we, the three of us, were destined to be together on the same team. Only together will we be able to overcome this obstacle."

"So what you're saying is that if we get strong enough and learn to work together, then we could prevent your dream from becoming a reality? But Neko is really mad right now, she doesn't want to believe you. How will we make her believe it wasn't just a dream?" Assai questioned. Atara replied, " I don't know. Neko already hates me, she's jealous of me." Assai said, "Yeah, because I like you and not her, but we were always friends and now she's mad at me even." "I'm sorry, Assai. It's my fault." "No Atara, you couldn't help the way I felt towards you. She'll just have to get over it. You never did anything to her, because even if I'd never known you, I would never have seen her as being my girlfriend. Atara, I love you." Atara looked at Assai with sad eyes, and then hugged him again. "Thank you, Assai. You've shown me how to love. I never knew that you cared about me so much until today. I try not to show emotion, but…" At this point, Atara began crying hysterically while leaning into Assai's chest. He embraced her as she squeezed him tightly.

Footsteps on the stairs alerted them and Atara stopped crying and wiped her eyes. Neko walked into the room with her head pointed downward. "I heard what you said, and I don't hate you Atara or you, Assai. I guess I was just simply jealous. Are we still a team?" She stood beside the bed looking back and forth at Atara and Assai, until finally Atara held her hand out between her and Assai, who placed his on top of hers. Neko's sad face turned to a happy one as she placed her hand on top of Assai's and they all said simultaneously, "Team!"

As soon as the words came out of their mouth Kaji came into the room. "Well?" he asked. "Are you ready to train?" Atara answered first with a definite yes. She jumped out of bed to stand in front of Kaji. She looked at him meaningfully and he, in turn, looked at Assai, who gave him the "yes, I told her" look. Kaji nodded his head and motioned for the three of them to follow him.

Kaji walked out of Atara's house to see the darkness of the night. Atara, Assai, and Neko followed him to the edge of town, where he had set up some training dummies in the middle of a field which was dotted by the occasional tree. "Now that you all know why you are on this team, it's time for some training. Your partners are here, and they will be testing you on the skills you must learn. Our first order of business is chakra control. You will learn how to channel the chakra through your hands. You are Konoha's new fire-wielding team of ninja. You will practice for as long as you can keep your eyes open, and then we'll see about sleep."

No one, not even Neko, complained. The three genins went out and began practicing chakra control. By the end of the night, Atara had managed to channel some of her chakra into her hands, Assai had gotten as far as his wrists, and Neko was now standing on her head. Neko fell to the ground and began snoring, while Assai watched Atara practice. His eyelids were getting heavier and heavier, but suddenly his body began to float. Atara giggled causing Assai to look at her. She had her hand pointed out towards him and it was glowing in a deep red color.

Just as she had made Assai float about twenty feet into the air, Kaji came out of nowhere. "Congratulations Atara. You've even learned to transfer your chakra through air. What has motivated you so much?" "Oh, nothing sensei," Atara replied. Suddenly Assai flew down to the ground, landing on his feet. "Okay Atara. Got anything else up your sleeve?" he asked playfully. Atara's jaw dropped. "How did you do that? I didn't let you down." "I know you didn't, I did," he replied. Kaji watched the two as they played with each other's minds. Then Atara said, "Actually yes, I do have something else." Her hand began to glow as she pointed it at Assai. His feet began to glow and suddenly he was pulled from the ground and hung from his feet. Atara and Kaji laughed. Then Kaji said, "Okay you two, you can go get some rest. I believe you understand chakra control; however your friend appears to understand the delicate art of sleep."

Atara and Assai walked away and towards Atara's house, holding hands. Once they got to Atara's doorstep, Atara said, "How did you learn to do that so quickly? Before, you could only get your chakra to your wrists and suddenly you can reverse mine. Good job." Assai smiled and pulled Atara closer to him. A mischievous grin crossed her face and she reached up and kissed Assai on the cheek before rushing into her house. Assai stood in the same position he had been in for a few seconds, and then he walked away to go to his house.

End: Oh, I love endings like this…for chapters. Yep, I always make the girl do something like that to the boy to make him seem so dumb. So please read and review for me people. And from now on, Takai Akuma will be called Takai for short.

Pairing for Neko:

Naruto

Sasuke

Rock Lee

Shikamaru

Neji

And I've decided not to include Chouji because I don't think they'd make a good couple.


	5. Chapter 5 Love is in the Air

Lone Wolf

**Intro: ** This is chapter five. In the last chapter, Atara found out what happened to her parents along with Neko, and they finally become more like a team. Kaji takes them to train and Atara and Assai learn to control their chakra while Neko sleeps.

**Disclaimer**: I don't own Naruto or any of the original Naruto characters. I do own my own OC's, which so far, yes so far, include Atara, Assai, Neko, Kaji, Tenshi, and Takai. You may not use Atara, Assai, or Neko.

**Love is In The Air, Chapter 5**

It was dark again. There was the blackened landscape, and the dead ninjas. Neko and Assai stood beside Atara, who was wielding her precious daggers, which were coursing with chakra from Atara's body. Suddenly a dark figure in a cape walked over the hill, the same hill where Atara had once seen Assai's dead body. The figure took off his hood and pulled his cape off. He had black hair, just like Atara, and dark green eyes, which were almost black, as Atara's had once been. His face was distorted in an evil grin as he looked away from his daughter and to something on the ground beside her. She looked to find Kakashi, bleeding from a slash on his chest. "Take care of him Neko. I can't let Kakashi die," she said, returning her focus to her father. Neko kneeled down and pulled out some bandages from her pocket. Atara and Assai walked forward to stand between Takai and Neko. Takai took a few steps closer to them, and so did Atara and Assai. Finally, when Atara was far enough away from Neko, she raised her daggers. "You wanted to kill me, so do it, but I'm warning you I won't go easily." "Maybe Kakashi was right about you after all, but it doesn't matter. Ha, I'll never have to say that again because Kakashi is of the past." Atara's anger was building and she released a sudden surge of chakra through her daggers. Now they grew longer and the blades appeared to be made of magma. She rushed toward her father and slashed at his chest, but he simply raised his sword to her dagger.

Suddenly everything became bright again and the frozen image of her father blocking her attack caused Atara to scream in anger. When she opened her eyes, Assai was standing beside her bed. "Atara?" he asked timidly. Atara quickly pulled her covers up over her body. "Um, are you naked?" Assai asked with a tinge of excitement in his voice. "Almost," Atara replied mischievously. "Oh, well I can go if you want me to." "No, you can sit on my bed while I change." Assai's eyes were bright as Atara's slim body slipped out from beneath her covers. All she had on was her black underwear. She looked at him curiously wondering why beads of sweat were poring from his face. Atara walked over to her closet, took out her clothes, laid them on her bed, and began to get dressed while a very apprehensive Assai sat waiting. Atara finished dressing and snuck up behind Assai.

"Okay, I'm ready. So what was it that you had come over for?" she asked him, her breath hitting the back of his neck. "Oh, yeah. Well um Neko was sort of sleeping through our training session yesterday so I was wondering if maybe we could go help her." Atara sighed. "Why is it always about work with you? We never have any fun." She pressed her face against his smooth skin and looked up at him with big red puppy dog eyes (that doesn't sound like it would work does it?). "Well, we could do something else you know. I just thought that if we helped Neko catch up, then we could start training with other things. You know that you have to get stronger, Atara, and I wish there was more time for training but your dream wasn't specific about when those events would happen. We have to be prepared." Atara moved from behind Assai to sit beside him.

"I had another dream last night. It was better, much better." Assai looked at her now serious eyes, all of the playfulness gone. "How much better?" he asked cautiously. Atara laid her hand on his and began telling him about the dream.

…After story…

Assai was smiling now. "So, that's why you don't want to train? You know, that could have been because we became a team and started training. It could have affected our future." "Yes, I know. It's just that—never mind." Assai got up and started to walk out of the door. "Are you coming?" he asked. Atara shook her head and got off of her bed. She ran to the door to be caught by Assai's outstretched arms. She laughed and nuzzled against him as they climbed down the stairs and went outside heading toward Neko's house.

…Neko's House…

Assai knocked on the door. Neko said, "Okay mom, my friends are here, bye." She grabbed a piece of toast from the table and jogged to the door. "Hi, guys," she said after swallowing a bite of the bread. "So what are we going to do today?" she asked, looking at Assai expectantly. He thought for a moment before saying, "We could go see our sensei and see if he's awake yet." Atara and Neko looked at each other and then at Assai with naughty eyes.

The three genins ran to Kaji's house and snuck into the front door. When they went up the stairs, they found him asleep and Tenshi lying beside him in her undies. "Okay..," Assai said. Neko giggled and Atara held onto Assai's arm.

Suddenly Tenshi began to awake, and Assai, Atara, and Neko started to walk out. As they were about to close the door, three kunai flew towards them and stuck into the wall only centimeters away from their heads.

"What are you three doing here?" she whispered. "Um sorry Tenshi, we were um…" Assai couldn't figure out how to tell her the truth.

"Coming to check on Sensei," Atara said smoothly. "You, know. We have to make sure he's okay." Assai grinned at Atara's lying explanation of why they were there. "Okay, I'll get him up. You kids can go sit on the couch downstairs."

Assai, Atara, and Neko went down the stairs and sat on the couch together. Assai said, "Thanks, I almost messed it up, huh?" "Actually Assai, I don't think Tenshi would have cared even if Atara had told the truth. She's still half asleep," Neko replied. "Yeah, but you were completely asleep last night," Atara responded.

"Okay, my faithful students! Who wants breakfast?" Kaji interrupted. "We do!" they all replied simultaneously. "Good, you're gonna need it." Kaji grinned and then went into the kitchen to start cooking breakfast.

After about half an hour, Kaji said, "Okay, breakfast is served ladies and gentleman." Assai laughed at the last part. "We're outnumbered, sensei." Atara chuckled under her breath at his comical words as she got off of the couch to go eat. Neko was already sitting down, and Tenshi was coming down the stairs to sit by Kaji. Assai was the last one to get to the table.

After they ate breakfast, Kaji helped Tenshi with the dishes and wrapped his arms around her waist, giving her a parting kiss. She whispered back, "See you tonight."

Atara grinned while Neko and Assai giggled. Kaji blushed as he released Tenshi and went outside with his students. "Why aren't your partners with you?" he asked once they were outside.

"Oh they are," Neko answered as a lion cub's head popped out of her back pack, a panther from Atara's, and a wolf from Assai's.

"Very funny, students," Kaji said, suppressing his thoughts of how funny it was that he had been played for a fool by three genins.

"Okay Kaji. So what are we going to do today?" Atara asked seriously. He answered, "Well you and Assai are going to train with your partners while I help sleepy head practice what you did last night."

Atara and Assai nodded, but Neko asked arrogantly, "Sleepy Head?" "Yes?" Kaji said with a suppressed grin on his face. "Why am I Sleepy Head?" "Because you slept through most of the training and didn't even learn how to control your chakra." "Oh," Neko said blushing but still sort of angry at her nickname.

They went back to their training grounds and Kaji left Atara and Assai standing together as he sent Neko off to the side of the clearing to train in the previous day's work. He returned to see them still waiting in almost the exact same position as when he'd left, only that Assai's left hand was placed somewhat comfortably on Atara's left hip. Kaji interrupted, "Okay you two time to get serious." He paused for a second thinking about what he had said, while Atara and Assai looked at each other. Then he corrected himself, "About your training—ninja training."

"So you two are going to have to work with your partners, which by the way, have pretty good skills with fire. They will help you to learn the basics about the special jutsu, faia-shishou (fire master). But for today all that I require of you is that you be able to block their attacks. You can pick teams or be alone, but either way you will be facing your partners so don't try to get out of it.

Atara looked at Assai as Kaji walked away. Yabun and Hoshi had already gotten out of their back packs and were running around in the clearing. They went over to each other and appeared to be whispering something that neither Atara nor Assai could understand. Not seeing Kaji anywhere near them, Assai walked over to Atara and stood under the shade of a tree with her, his arms wrapped around her waist. His eyes kept darting from her face to her full chest to the woods around them. Atara said quietly, "Calm down." She wrapped her arms loosely around his neck and reached up to become eye level with him, only to be interrupted by Kaji's voice, "Training!"

Atara released him and he did the same, both wishing that they had never left Atara's room. When they looked out into the clearing, Hoshi and Yabun were gone. Suddenly Atara felt something hot coming toward her and she grabbed Assai by his arms and pulled him to the ground with her just as a stream of fire shot past them.

Atara said, "All we have to do is block their attacks right. Well we can work as a team to locate them and then the blocking part will have to be done individually." "Right, because we may not always be fighting side by side. So how will we find them?"

"Well the fire came from this direction and Yabun and Hoshi are probably hiding in the lower branches of a small tree for the fire to go where it went so…" She pointed at an area in the woods. "Try there?" Assai asked. Atara nodded and they walked cautiously into the woods. Suddenly another fire ball came flying at their heads. While backing up, Atara summoned her chakra to her hands quickly and fired it at the fireball, slowing it down and finally making it stop completely and vanish.

Assai said, "Wow that was great." Just as the words left his mouth, another fireball came soaring at his head. Following the steps that Atara had done before, he too was able to stop the fireball. "Good job Assai," Atara said to him.

"Yes and good job to both of you. You have passed this test," Kaji's voice called from the top of a tree. His head popped out of it upside down. "However, in battle, you may have to be much faster. Considering that this was your first time I believe you did exceptionally well."

"So, how's Neko coming along sensei?" Atara asked. "I'm coming along fine," Neko said with two glowing orbs in her hands as she hung upside down from a tree branch.

"Well it seems that you three have done an excellent job today. I'll give you a break for a couple hours and then we'll meet back here around sunset." "Okay," they said together. Neko asked after they were out of earshot of Kaji, "What do you think we're coming back for?"

"I don't know, but I'm going to go see Naruto and see what he's doing," Assai replied. Assai started walking towards the Ramen Shop. Atara said to Neko, "I don't know what Kaji wants us for, probably more training. See yah!" Atara ran off toward Assai leaving Neko by herself.

Suddenly a voice called her from the shadows, "So you guys are meeting at sunset too?" "Yes. Sasuke is that you?" Neko asked. Sasuke walked out of the shadows and said, "Kakashi told us to me in that very clearing at sunset today. So what do you think they're planning?"

"I don't know. Wait, your team is going to be there too?" Sasuke shook his head. "Hmm…That's weird."

"Wanna go get something to eat, Neko?" Sasuke asked. This confused Neko. Did Sasuke like her and if so why wouldn't he just come out and say it? He had say by her on the day they graduated. _Eh, whatever. It's just a coincidence_, she thought.

Sasuke and Neko walked toward the Ramen Shop where Assai and Atara had already met up with Naruto, who was now engaging in a ramen eating contest with Atara and Assai. Neko laughed as she saw them. Assai had finished only four bowls before he'd quit. Atara and Naruto were scarfing down ramen like they'd never seen it before. So far there were at least twenty bowls stacked up. Sasuke gasped. "How is she keeping up with him?" Neko answered, "I don't know but this is funny. I wonder who is paying for all of that ramen."

A very angry Iruka gave the answer to this question. Another equally fumed Kaji gave the second answer. Finally Naruto looked like he would bust, and he stopped. "Okay burp you burp win burp."

Iruka, Kaji, Sasuke, and Neko stared at Atara in amazement. Assai said, "Dang, you really like ramen don't you, babe?" Atara looked at him and smiled.

Neko looked down at the ground. She knew how much Assai liked Atara now and she was certain she'd never be with him. As the reality set in Neko finally realized that it didn't matter any more. Assai and Atara were in love and there was nothing she could do about it. She would just have to find someone else.

Sasuke was looking at her wondering what was wrong. Suddenly his thoughts were interrupted when Naruto asked her loudly, "What's wrong Neko-chan?" "Huh? Nothing, Naruto," Neko said snapping out of her trance. Suddenly she realized that everyone was looking at her and she blushed.

Sasuke sat down and ordered two bowls of ramen, giving one of them to Neko. Assai and Atara left and went to Atara's house. Kaji and Iruka went away talking to each other. Naruto looked at Sasuke with an angry expression on his face. He sat resting for a while at the Ramen shop with Neko and Sasuke before the three of them left.

…Atara's House…

Atara was taking a shower while Assai looked around her room. It was plain except for the candles on both sides of her bed. They stood out against the dark colored walls. Suddenly, Assai felt someone take his shirt off of his body, and Atara's hands wrapped around him. He turned around to face her finding her standing in a short black dress behind him. His eyes were drawn to her now, and he couldn't take them off. He placed his hand on her leg as she spun him around to lie on the bed.

Atara's wanting eyes—needing eyes—called to Assai. His face got closer and closer to hers until finally they were touching. He locked onto her in an embracing, tender kiss as his hand made its way up her dress. Her smooth body rubbed against his and she unbuckled his pants as the candles by her bed lit up. A quick gasp from Atara could be heard from outside her door by Yabun, who snickered and snuck away from the room leaving the two lovers alone.

…A few hours later…

Atara woke up naked with Assai lying beside her, his arm wrapped around her torso. Slowly his eyes opened as well. He put his hand up to her face and felt of her soft skin. Coming closer, he kissed her again before getting up and putting his clothes on. She looked outside.

"Uh oh, it's almost sunset," she said. "I know, we have to hurry," Assai replied. He turned around to see Atara coming towards him. She looked at him lovingly. She wrapped her arms around his neck and locked onto him again with all of the passion of their first kiss. He put his hands on her sides gently as if they were breakable, and returned her kiss.

After they got dressed, Assai and Atara ran to the clearing where Kaji and Neko were already waiting. "Where have you two been or do I want to know?" he asked them. The look they gave him said, "You don't want to know."

As Atara turned her head, she saw Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura coming towards them accompanied by Kakashi.

"What is the meaning of this, sensei?" Atara asked politely. "I'll tell you what it is. Kakashi and I have decided that we will test your fighting abilities. You are going to have to fight each other." With those words, Assai looked across from him at Naruto, Atara stared at Sasuke, and Neko gazed at Sakura.

End: Okay so weird ending I know but I didn't want to start the fight here and end it next chap and I probably lied about Atara and Assai but it had to happen sometime and I felt like now would be the best since—well I can't give away the rest of the story. So I really need some people to start voting for a pairing for Neko otherwise I'll have to choose for myself.

Her options are:

Naruto

Rock Lee

Shikamaru

Neji

Kiba

Shino


	6. Chapter 6 Konoha's Runaway Ninja

Lone Wolf

**Intro: **Chapter 6, this chapter is going to start off with the fight. So I can imagine that you've already guessed who's going to fight who. So how about we see if you guys are right.

**Disclaimer**: I don't own Naruto or any of the original Naruto characters. I do own my own OC's, which so far, yes so far, include Atara, Assai, Neko, Kaji, Tenshi, and Takai. You may not use Atara, Assai, or Neko.

**Konoha's Runaway Ninja, Chapter 6**

Atara, Assai, and Neko stared their opponents down. Kaji said, "I think you've got the idea. To test your progress so far, you will duel two at a time. Assai, we have decided that you and Naruto will go first."

Assai and Naruto nodded their heads together. Going out into the middle of the clearing, they waited while the others lined up along the edge. When Kaji nodded, they took their fighting stances. He raised his hand into the air and then swung it downward saying, "Fight!"

Naruto was the first to make his move. He used his Shadow Clone Jutsu to distract Assai, who took out ten shuriken with his own chakra flowing through them. Hurling them at the clones he took out ten on the first strike. Making the shuriken come back to him, he took out the rest of them leaving Naruto standing stunned. With no other resort, he used Sexy Jutsu. Assai looked at Atara quickly before shooting out two orbs of chakra at Naruto. Naruto banged his hand against his head. "That was stupid, he has a girlfriend." While he wasn't paying attention, Assai snuck up behind him and held a kunai to his throat. "Aww, damn," Naruto cursed. "Okay, match over. Assai wins," Kaji said.

Kakashi looked disappointedly at Naruto. Silently he thought, _He is such an idiot_. Kaji then said, "Okay Neko and Sakura, you're up." Neko and Sakura walked out to the middle of the clearing. Sakura said, "I'll win for you Sasuke!" This caused both Sasuke and Neko to roll their eyes. Following the same steps as with the first battle Kaji signaled to begin the fight.

Both Neko and Sakura threw kunai at each other, but they all hit each other and fell to the ground. Before Sakura knew what had happened Neko was behind her and using her chakra as Atara had done to Assai, causing her to float in the air. Sakura was not stupid however. She managed to put her feet back on the ground and charge at Neko. Neko jumped up out of her way and threw a kunai directly at Sakura. When it hit, she saw that it was really a log. "Uh oh," Neko said looking up. In the tree above her head, Sakura was waiting. She jumped down on top of Neko pinning her to the ground. Kaji raised his hand and said with a smile, "Sakura wins."

Kakashi looked disappointed again, but why? His student had won. When he pulled out some cash from his pocket, Atara and the others realized why. As he took the money, Kaji said, "Thank you." Atara and Assai laughed, while Neko and Sakura made pouting faces. Once they were through, Kaji and Kakashi looked back and forth between Atara and Sasuke. They were staring each other down now. "Okay you're up now," Kaji's voice said.

They walked slowly into the clearing. When Atara looked back at Assai, she grinned at his encouraging look. She stopped in the center. Sasuke looked down at her waist and saw that she had her twin daggers hanging on her belt. They each returned a grin to each other. Suddenly everyone realized that there was no telling who would win this fight. Kakashi, Kaji, and Assai knew that they both urged to be the best and each had a goal. Both of them were avengers of a sort.

After a long pause, Kaji raised his hand and signaled for them to fight. For a second or two, they just stared at each other. Then they both charged towards the other. Sasuke threw shuriken at Atara, which she deflected with her own. She jumped up and over him then swung her arm around sending four kunai soaring at Sasuke. He caught two of them, but the others passed by him leaving him unharmed. Without noticing it, they had come back around and were headed straight for him. Now he could see that Atara was controlling them. He dodged them and they stabbed into the ground.

They both stopped for a moment to look at each other again. Atara said, "No mercy." Sasuke nodded his head. "No mercy."

He used his Grand Fireball Skill to send a mass of fire towards Atara's head. _Yabun_, Atara thought silently. She quickly formed her chakra in her hands only a much larger amount than she had when training. Sending the ball soaring through the air at the fire mass, her chakra stopped it and deflected it back to an unsuspecting Sasuke. When he realized it was coming back for him, he used Substitution Jutsu to avoid the fire and sneak up behind Atara who thought he was finished. She stared at the spot where he'd been and now only a burnt log remained. As soon as she saw it, Sasuke jumped down on her knocking her over.

Atara rolled on the ground out of the way. She drew her daggers slowly, tauntingly. Looking at Sasuke, she remembered the image of her father; black hair, black eyes, cold evil grin. Sasuke looked similar to him; in fact, he almost fit into the mold perfectly. Thinking of this, she got angry, angry at Sasuke, angry at her father. Her anger resulted in a large amount of chakra flowing down the blade of her daggers, making them looking like magma.

Assai watched in horror as the energy coursed through them. He looked at Kaji, who was also fearful of what she would do to Sasuke. A look into her red eyes proved to be no help. She was angry, and all she could see was the image of her father reflected in Sasuke.

Sasuke also had a very rare scared look on his face. He, too, saw Atara's anger, but he also knew that he needed this victory too. Thinking of what would happen if he couldn't defeat this girl, Sasuke's anger rose too. He was ready for Atara's attack. When she struck, so would he and he would end up victorious. He took out his windmill shuriken. He also had a basic understanding of chakra control and he concentrated it into his weapon.

As Atara charged toward him, he threw the Windmill Shuriken at her, aimed for her stomach. Atara jumped over it without stopping. Just as she started sinking her daggers into Sasuke's flesh, everything went black. She felt herself hit the ground and heard her daggers land beside her before entering her dreamland.

Again she was fighting her father. Just as he blocked her attack, he said, "Pathetic. I told Kakashi you'd end up this way." He pushed her back by her weapons causing Atara to lose balance. "Now your friends will die too." Assai cursed Takai and charged at him with his new sword in hand. Atara looked up as she was getting up again. All she could see was the shadow of Assai and Takai fighting. Her eyes were filled with anguish and hatred as she saw the end of Takai's sword come out of Assai's back.

Suddenly, Assai's anxious voice woke her up. He was kneeling down over her lying on the ground. Sasuke, Naruto, and Sakura were quite frankly confused. Neko and Kaji were looking at Assai kneeling over his girlfriend. Kakashi came up near her head and said, "We need to get her off of the ground." He knelt down and reached his hands underneath her and raised her up off of the ground. Everyone followed, Assai beside Kakashi, and the others behind them, as he took Atara to her home.

Once there, he laid her on her bed and looked at her. Something about the way she had passed out made him figure that she had inherited foresight from her mother, who also had visions of the future. Assai stepped in front of him to be beside Atara. Kakashi and Kaji asked the others to go. Sasuke, Sakura, Naruto, and Neko walked out of the room whispering to each other about what had happened.

Kakashi said, "Does she have foresight like her mother, Kaji?" "You know, I didn't even think about it when she started seeing things. That's what it is," Kaji said, realization in his voice. "What do you think she saw?" Kakashi asked. "I don't know. She never tells me; she only tells Assai and Neko." Kaji looked hopefully at Assai, who looked back at him. "Whatever it was, it had to have been bad because Atara is not weak," he told his sensei. Kaji nodded and walked out of the room. Silently he thought, _If this wasn't a serious matter, that could definitely be taken the wrong way._

Kakashi asked Assai, once Kaji had walked away, "Did you tell her about her parents?" "Yes. I'm sorry. I couldn't let her go on not knowing what happened to them. She thought that they didn't love her. I know for sure that one of them did." "Don't worry about explanations, Assai. I was not the one that wanted to keep it from her in the first place. She deserved to know." Assai tried to force a smile but it resulted in making his handsome face seem very ugly.

Kakashi was about to walk away when Atara's weak voice said, "Thank you, Kakashi." "You're welcome," he replied with the slightest hint of sadness in his voice.

Assai looked at Atara sadly. "Babe, what happened?" he asked her lovingly, with his face close to hers. "I—I can't t—tell you," she answered as tears came down her face. "Was it that bad?" "Yes. Assai you know I love you right?" "Yes." "Well…don't forget it because…I may not be able to…tell you again." "No! Atara you will tell me again. I know you will." "Assai, when I get my strength back…I have to leave you." "Leave me?" "Yes, I have to leave you and Neko and sensei, everyone except Yabun. He won't let me leave him." "Nor will I," Assai said stubbornly. "I have to," Atara said fighting back the tears that flowed from the corners of her eyes down her pale cheeks.

She reached up to pull Assai's face to hers. "I may not come back so I'm going to make sure that I say goodbye properly." Assai found that tears were coming slowly down his cheeks too. Atara forced her body to let her kiss him. The kiss seemed to last for hours. Outside the door, Neko and Kaji stood listening and peeked into the room, to see Atara kissing Assai. Then they snuck away, each of them just as sad as the other. Atara was proclaiming that she was going to run away and the worst part was that she didn't know if she'd come back.

…Next Morning at Atara's House…

Atara had gotten her strength back with a good night's sleep. She would not go back on her word either. Assai had lain down on her bed last night and was still asleep. No wonder, daylight hadn't even broken yet. Atara had packed her things and gotten some travel food. She came back to her room and looked sorrowfully at Assai.

She had made her commitment to him official yesterday, and now she had to leave him. A tear slipped out of each of her eyes. She had to tell him one more time. Bending down to kiss him she whispered, "I love you." He began to stir as he felt her lips touch his. Atara rushed away, leaving him for what could be forever.

As he woke up, Assai saw that Atara was gone. _Goodbye my love, and good luck._

End: So this is one of the sadder chapters of Lone Wolf so far. Now you may start to see where the title comes into play. And now you see why last chap was the best time for…well you know. So I really need some people to start voting for a pairing for Neko otherwise I'll have to choose for myself.

Her options are:

Naruto0

Sasuke0

Rock Lee0

Shikamaru0

Neji0

The ones that I have left out I have done so on purpose because I do not feel that they would make a good companion for Neko. By the way, if you wait until next chapter to place your vote, I'll give some hints as to who she'd be good with. She's already started talking to Sasuke and Naruto is obviously jealous of him. The other three will probably come in either next chapter or the one after it.


	7. Chapter 7 New Friends

Lone Wolf

**Intro: **This is chapter 7. Okay like I said, Neko is going to be talking to other guys so that people who are reading can vote based on who they think is more suitable for her based on how she interacts with them. You may also find that I make many of the original characters character very OCish.

**Disclaimer**: I don't own Naruto or any of the original Naruto characters. I do own my own OC's, which so far, yes so far, include Atara, Assai, Neko, Kaji, Tenshi, and Takai. You may not use Atara, Assai, or Neko.

**New Friends, Chapter 7**

Neko walked into Atara's room to see Assai sitting up on her bed staring at the spot where she had laid the night before. Neko sat on the bed looking at him. "Um, Assai." Neko looked at him and saw that tears were coming down his face. "She left, didn't she?" Assai nodded his head. "I'm really sorry." Assai did not respond. When his tears began falling faster, Neko walked over to him and hugged him. "It'll be okay. She'll come back. I know she will." "No, Neko. She won't come back." "Why not?" Neko asked, letting go of him and sitting beside him on the bed again. "She went to find her father, but she's not ready for it. She's getting stronger, but it's not enough." Neko felt tears starting to form in her eyes. "You have to believe in her. Assai, she loves you and she won't do something stupid."

Assai looked up at Neko, his face drying now that he'd stopped crying. "You're not mad—or jealous?" "No, not anymore. I do like you Assai, but I realized that I had liked you for the wrong reasons. Now I'm starting to actually get to know you as a person and I still like you. It's just that I realized…I don't love you…at least not as much or in the way that she does. I'm content now to be your friend and at least now I can focus on my training more." "That's good Neko. Hey, you could have beaten Sakura, too. It was just a really good use of the Substitution Jutsu."

"No, I'll tell you something that was funny. Remember when Naruto used the Sexy Jutsu?" Neko asked laughing. "Yeah, that was kind of dumb. I think he realized it afterwards though." "I know. Atara was standing right there." Suddenly Assai stopped laughing. "Come on; let's go do something to get our minds off of this." Assai nodded his head.

…Ramen Shop 10 mins later…

Assai and Neko walked up to the shop to find Shikamaru already there. He was quietly eating a bowl of Beef Ramen. When they came up, he looked at them out of the corner of his eye. "Hi," he said to Neko. "Oh hey Shikamaru."

Assai ordered a bowl of Chicken Ramen and Neko ordered a bowl of Vegetable Ramen. As they ate, Neko talked between Assai and Shikamaru. Shikamaru had finished his ramen but was listening to Neko talking about Atara leaving Konoha. He replied when she told him, "She did seem like something was bothering her a couple days ago. I hope she comes back; she'd make a good opponent during the chuunin exams. Maybe they'll hold them off while they search for her."

"Will they search for her?" Assai interrupted excitedly. "Of course, if you tell them that she was taken they will." "But they would know that she wasn't," Assai said gloomily. "You're her boyfriend aren't you?" he asked. "Yes." "I'm really sorry. Do you know why she left?" "No," Assai lied. "Well, gotta go," Shikamaru said, as he got up and walked away. "Bye Neko…and Assai."

Neko and Assai finished their ramen and then went back to Neko's house. They talked and played board games until sunset and then Assai went to Atara's house. He went inside and laid down on her bed. The sweet smell of her hair reminded him of her. He lit the candles by her bed, remembering yesterday. He truly loved Atara, and not just because she was a great kisser. He had always loved her and now she was gone and maybe for good. He fell asleep that night thinking of his one true love, her scent surrounding him and making him feel close to her.

…With Atara (two months later)…

She was making her way through the forest. She had fought off many people to get as far as she had. Now she faced a dark ninja, his eyes were evil and he appeared as though he had just killed someone. "Hey pretty little lady," he sneered.

"In your dreams," said the now more rugged Atara. "Young innocent girls like you shouldn't be in this forest. It's too dangerous." "For your information, I'm not an innocent girl. If you want me because you think I'm a virgin, you're wrong." "You aren't?" he asked confused. "No, and I have a boyfriend—a young boyfriend, much younger than you," she taunted.

The man's eyes got an even eviler glare in them. "Well then, I guess I'll have to kill you." "You can try."

He rushed at her with his two swords drawn and ready for the strike. She drew her daggers and stopped his charge, knocking him off balance by pushing with her daggers. He fell to the ground, breathing hard. Getting on top of him, she pinned his arms down with her knees. "Have you seen Takai Akuma?" Atara hissed.

He shook his head fearfully. "Then you are of no use to me," she said, getting up and slashing him in an X with her daggers and leaving him to bleed to death. She looked through his things and took what she could use, including some stale bread which she ate immediately. She had tied her purple shirt up in the front just beneath her bra. She then heard a noise behind her, a rustling in the bushes. Yabun stood in front of her, ready to protect her from whatever was stalking them.

…With Neko (morning)…

She was eating breakfast when Assai suddenly ran into her house. He said, "Neji found a piece of Atara's clothing in the forest, Neko! Something must have happened. We have to look for her!"

"Assai, you scared me. Slow down. Maybe she ripped it on a branch or something." Neko continued eating after making a brief explanation. "Maybe you're right Neko, but this is the first sign of her since she left." "Where did he find?" "On the outside edge of the forest, the farthest away from Konoha."

"So she's made it that far already? Assai maybe you shouldn't worry about her so much. She's bound to find a village somewhere and stay there for a while. When she does, someone will see her. Then we'll know that she's okay."

"Alright, Neko I guess that I have to trust you," Assai said as he started to walk out of her house. Neko stopped him by saying, "Where is Neji anyways?"

"I think he was relaxing in the clearing where we train." Neko nodded her head, finished breakfast and then went looking for him.

She got to the clearing but didn't see him so she went looking for him. When she turned around to look behind a tree, Neji got up and accidentally found himself staring at Neko's breasts. Neko cleared her throat loudly. "Oh, sorry."

"So did you really find some of Atara's clothing?" she asked. "Yes," he said, pulling out a piece of her fishnet shirt. Neko looked closely at it. She gasped as she saw some red liquid on it. It was still fresh. "Where did you find this?" she asked hurriedly. "I'll show you if you want me to." "Yes, show me," Neko said worried.

…Outside edge of Forest…

Neko and Neji were searching a clearing on the edge of the forest. When Neko looked down she saw some more red liquid and black fur. A piece of Atara's hair was also found. More shards of her clothes were scattered around the clearing.

Finally, Neko realized that all may not be well for Atara. "I think she was fighting someone, and Yabun was with her. Look there's a place where she was drug on the ground." "Should we tell Assai?" Neji asked. "No! If he knows he'll freak. We have to make sure that he doesn't find out. We just won't tell him that we came here."

"How will that help?" Neji asked confused. "At least if he finds this he won't know that we were keeping from him," Neko explained. "That's nice." "I know brilliant right?" Neji shook his head with a slight grin.

…With Atara…

She was tied to a post and next to her, Yabun was chained to another post by his feet. An angry-looking ninja with dark hair, dark eyes, and two swords on his back was staring at Atara from his seat on the far side of the black room.

He got up and came to her. "Why did you kill my brother?!" he screamed referring to the ninja Atara had killed which looked exactly like this one. "He was no use to me so I figured that I might as well kill him."

"Who are you anyways, you whore?" "For one thing, I'm not a whore and my name is Atara. I am the runaway ninja of Konoha." "Really now," he pondered. "Well maybe I'll take you back where you belong so they can handle your murderous mind."

"No! I can't go back! I—I have something I must do first." Yabun looked at Atara with caring eyes. He was concerned for her. All that he wanted was for her to go back home and be with Assai. He couldn't stand to see her so sad.

"Why should I do what you say, Atara?" he asked hissing the last word of it. "Because of this," Atara said coolly as the ropes that bound her fell loose. "How did you do that?!" he asked astounded. Then he sneered, "I took all of your weapons away from you." "I don't need a weapon," she replied calmly as she stood and formed her chakra in her hand. This time, it wasn't just chakra, it was fire! "Say goodbye. You'll soon be joining your brother."

With that, Atara rushed the ninja and plunged the fire into his chest. His body began to become engulfed in a red flame and he fell to the ground just seconds later, dead. Atara bent over his body and drew her unharmed weapons from his pack that he carried on his waist.

She walked quietly to Yabun, who stared at her with disappointing eyes, and unchained him. "What?" she asked when she saw the look he gave her. **You could have gone home but you didn't. Why? **He asked her.

"I have to get stronger, Yabun. If I don't Assai will die trying to help me fight my father. I can't go back to Konoha, not yet." Yabun replied with seriousness in his voice, **But you've already defeated every rogue ninja in the forest. Not many can do that much. Atara it's time to go home.**

Atara looked at him with a sad face—a longing face: she wanted to go home, but something told her that she could not. She had gotten longer hair, her eyes were a deeper color, and her face was more of a woman's face than a girl's now. During these two months, he had matured a lot as well. The cat was bigger, stronger, and his voice had deepened. She wondered if Assai had become more handsome. She wondered if he was trying to move on with life after what she had said about not coming back. Would he have gotten a new girlfriend by now? Had he forgotten about her already? This is why she definitely could not go back. There was no way she could face reality.

End: Okay so Atara is missing her lover and her home. She is getting closer to what she wants but she still doesn't think that she's strong enough. Maybe a dream will give her some answers. Okay and don't get confused when I skip forward another ten months so that she'll have been gone from Konoha for a whole year. Okay so plz R&R.

Neko Pairing:

Naruto0

Sasuke0

Rock Lee0

Shikamaru0

Neji0

The ones that I have left out I have done so on purpose because I do not feel that they would make a good companion for Neko. By the way, if you wait until next chapter to place your vote, I'll give some hints as to who she'd be good with. She's already started talking to Sasuke and Naruto is obviously jealous of him. The other three will probably come in either next chapter or the one after it.


	8. Chapter 8 Reunited

Lone Wolf

**Intro:** Okay not much to say about it, just that this is chapter 8 (its coming along quite nicely) and I can't give hints about what happens because I'd give it away. But it starts ten months after the previous chaps events. Because hinatanarutoneji aka, my cousin, said that I put 2 much detail into specific scenes and that I needed to up the rating, I shall now do so. I am changing from T to M, kk?

**Disclaimer**: I don't own Naruto or any of the original Naruto characters. I do own my own OC's, which so far, yes so far, include Atara, Assai, Neko, Kaji, Tenshi, and Takai. You may not use Atara, Assai, or Neko.

**Reunited, Chapter 8**

…Ten months later…

Atara had been around the world it seemed. She was stronger, maybe too strong. She had killed almost every ninja that she had seen in the forests. Now she was spying on three figures.

One had blonde hair pulled into four different ponytails so that if you connected the edges you'd have a square. The other was wearing full face makeup and in an ugly black 'costume.' Another was red-headed and had a strange gourd on his back.

They were heading determinedly towards Konoha. Atara thought they might be going to meet up with an attacking squadron of Shinobi. She was ready for them. Jumping out of the bushes, she confronted the three ninjas. "Where exactly are you three headed?" "We're going to Konoha for the Chuunin exams," the blonde said warily before the others could speak.

"Oh." Silently Atara thought, _Assai's going to become a Chuunin, too. But I'm not going to be with him._

The blonde-haired ninja asked, "Is something wrong?" Then she looked at the ninja more closely. "Wait a second, you're—Atara, the runaway ninja of Konoha. Aren't you?" "Yes I am," Atara said sadly. When Yabun came out of the bushes, the red-haired ninja looked at him angrily. "Oh, this is Yabun. What are your names?" Atara asked quietly.

The blonde introduced them. "I'm Temari. This is Gaara and Kankuro, my brothers." "Hello, Temari, Gaara and Kankuro." "Aren't you going to become a Chuunin, too, Atara?" Temari asked. "I was going to be, but I can't if I'm not there," she answered.

Temari thought for a moment, and then said, "You could come with us. I won't let him kill you." She pointed to the red-headed ninja, who gave her an evil glare. His gaze returned to normal when he looked at Atara. (don't take it the wrong way, he just has nothing to hate her for)

…a few weeks later…

The four could see the gates of Konoha. It was only an hour away from dark now and Atara breathed in the fresh scent of home. Gaara looked at her trying to figure out what was up with her and Kankuro just looked like he thought she was weird. But she and Temari were becoming friends. They had talked the whole way to Konoha just about.

They walked into the village and wandered around for a while. When they met some genins from Konoha, namely Sakura, Naruto, and Sasuke (who had some weird guy type brush with Gaara), Atara decided to go look for Assai.

When Sakura saw Atara come towards her she greeted her with a friendly hug. (not lesbian, friendly) She pushed her away when she noticed Gaara watching with a confused look on his face. (Wait can he be confused? Great now im confused) "Hey, Sakura. Where's Assai?" she asked. "Oh Atara you have no idea how much he missed you. We're glad that you're back too. Um, he's probably at your house. He seems to like spending all of his time there."

"Thanks, Sakura," Atara said gratefully as she headed for her house. Then she thought, _Didn't I lock my house? Oh yeah, he was in my house when I left so I didn't and nor did I take the key._ After a few moments she thought, _Wow that was smart._

Sasuke was sitting in a tree. As Atara left, he watched her with a strange glare in his eyes. He had something to finish.

…Atara's house…

Atara snuck into her house as quiet as a mouse. She took off her shoes while sitting on the couch, and laid her weapons down on the kitchen table. She climbed up the stairs and laid her belt on the floor outside her bedroom door.

Opening the door, she found that Assai was sitting on her bed turned away from her. _Perfect_, she thought. Stepping in with her bare feet not making a sound, Atara came up behind Assai. "What is it Neko?" he asked. Atara squeezed her hands through the gap between his arms and his sides and rubbed his chest. "I'm not Neko," she whispered, her face against his neck. "Atara? Am I dead?" "No silly you're not dead. I'll prove it," she said playfully.

Atara bounced on her bed and swung herself around Assai, who was sitting in the middle, and landed in his lap. "Atara?!" he asked fighting back tears. He lost that battle as tears began to stream uncontrollably down his face, wetting his tan cheeks.

Atara understood his feelings and she, too, began to cry sofly. She reached up to wipe the tears away from his face and then wrapped her arms around his neck. She brushed her lips up against his once or twice before finally engaging in a fierce battle of tongues.

Never had she felt so alive as she did that day, as she bent over Assai, who now laid on the bed, and made out with him. His arms instinctively wrapped around her slim figure and his hand began to rummage through her clothing, which was now too big for her, and reach her soft skin.

Yabun smiled as he saw them together again. He thought to himself, **_She finally knows where she belongs. No more will she be a lone wolf. Atara has someone to spend eternity with no matter what happens._**

End: Okay so this was a shorter chapter than the previous ones. This is mainly because I think I've got the "Reunited" part down. (Reunited was the name of the chapter, get it?)

Plz R&R oh and plz vote for Neko Pairing.

Neko Pairing:

Naruto0

Rock Lee1

Shikamaru0

Neji1

Kiba0

Shino0

So plz vote so I can make Neko not be alone anymore (otherwise she might start singing: cuz im all alone, there's no one here beside me,…) yeah I think u get it.

Um as you can see I have changed the voting to no longer include Sasuke and to make up for the loss, it now includes Kiba and Shino(why Shino I have no idea, just felt like it)


	9. Chapter 9 Final Training

Lone Wolf

**Intro:** Okay not much to say about it, just that this is chapter 9 (its coming along quite nicely) and I can't give hints about what happens because I'd give it away. And I'm getting tired of having to stop to think up an intro so from now on I'll only say stuff that's necessary.

**Disclaimer**: I don't own Naruto or any of the original Naruto characters. I do own my own OC's, which so far, yes so far, include Atara, Assai, Neko, Kaji, Tenshi, and Takai. You may not use Atara, Assai, or Neko.

**Final Training, Chapter 9**

Atara and Assai woke up at about the same time lying in bed with each other, neither less naked than the other (they're completely nude in case you didn't get it). Atara had her head laying on Assai's muscular chest, her hand tracing every tight curve in it.

"I love you so much Assai," she whispered. "I love you too, babe," he replied. His arm was wrapped around her and his hand rested on her chest. They just laid there for a while before kissing again and getting up to get dressed.

Assai put his pants on and then came over to Atara who currently only had on her bra and thong. He wrapped his arms around her from behind and rested his head in the curve of her neck. "I've missed you. It's been miserable without you." Atara stood still but comfortably as she laid her hands over his which were rested just below her breasts.

She smiled inside and out to think that he cared about her so much. "Assai," she started turning to face him and pressing her body against his. "Why didn't you come looking for me? I mean, I could have been…(she skipped a word and diverted her eyes away from his for a second before returning them to meet his)…but you didn't come. Why?"

"Because you told me not to and I respected your wish." Atara smiled at him. This was one of the reasons why she loved him so much.

…Outside Atara's House…

Sasuke was staring at Atara's house from the shade of an oak tree. (Just think if he were close enough to her upstairs window he could see her naked, of course that would mean seeing Assai naked too –Sasuke shudders at thought-) He had to finish what he'd started. She was stronger than him and he couldn't bear it. He had to defeat her, one way or another. Now that Kakashi and had already signed them up for the chuunin selection exam, which he told them about that morning before he came, he would have a chance.

Atara walked out of her house with Assai close behind her. When Sasuke saw the door open he was quick to move in front of them. As he appeared in front of her Atara said simply, "Hello, Sasuke."

"Hello Atara. Are you taking the chuunin selection exam?" he asked. "That's one of the reasons why I came back. I saw those three nins from hidden sand village and they told me about it. Why do you ask Sasuke?" She already knew the answer and was guessing that he'd lie.

"Well…I was just wondering you know. I hope to see you there." He did. Sasuke waved as he walked away. "Same here, Sasuke!" Atara called after him. To Assai, she said, "Yeah, plan to see you begging for mercy at my feet." Assai laughed and wrapped his arm around her as they walked to Neko's house.

When they got to Neko's house, she was coming out of the door already prepared for another day of training. When she saw Atara, she squealed and came to give her a hug, "OMG! I can't believe you're back! I thought for sure something had happened to you when Neji and I saw…"

She stopped as she saw the look that was coming over Assai's face. "What did you find, Neko?" Her face turned red with fear at Assai's menacing glare. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you. When Neji and I were in the forest, after he'd found a shard of Atara's clothing, we found where there had been a struggle and there was blood. I also found a clump of Yabun's fur. I didn't want you to worry and forget about your training. I'm sorry."

Atara looked away. She was remembering the battle where she'd killed that ninja's brother and then he jumped her and drug her away which had led to her being tied up with Yabun. "It's kind of embarrassing," she said quietly.

Assai and Neko asked together, "What's embarrassing?" She answered, "I had killed this ninja in the forest." The word "killed" scared them both and they stared at her shaking. "His brother snuck up on me and I didn't even know he was there. He defeated me in battle and knocked me out, taking me to some weird place. When I woke up, Yabun and I were tied up to posts and he was waiting for me. Of course, I got free using a new technique that I developed."

"What technique is that?" Neko asked. "Hey, why don't we all go show each other how much stronger we've gotten?" Assai suggested. "Okay," Atara said, making her way to the training field, Assai and Neko close behind her.

At the training field, there were already dummies set up and targets hanging from the bordering trees. Atara stopped once she got to the center. "Are you guys ready? I'll show mine first."

Atara stood a distance away from her teammates. She turned to face a dummy, which someone had scribbled all over with some sort of paint (I wonder who?). Holding her hands up and to her side so that Assai and Neko could see them, she concentrated on fire.

Her chakra flowed down her arms slowly, and they watched the whole thing, as it turned red and became fire. The air around them became hotter and Neko and Assai had started to sweat. Atara pulled one of her hands back, balling it into a fist, and struck the dummy leaving her hand in its position.

At first, it did not appear to have done anything but then the dummy caught fire beneath her hand and it burned from the inside out. Assai and Neko stared on in amazement. She could transfer core heat and turn it into fire.

Assai stood up and said, "Neko and I have been training with Kaji and we've gotten stronger also. I'll show you what I can do." He too stood to face a dummy (he had to choose a different one, since that one already disintegrated.) and then made some weird seals with his hand. "Fire Wolf Jutsu!"

He stared the dummy down as fire engulfed his hands and arms. He held out his arms as the fire quickly took the shape of a wolf and charged the dummy, jumping up and slashing it with its front paws and then pivoting once behind it and going in for another strike. With the second strike, the dummy was completely engulfed in flames and it finally exploded due to the heat. Then as the wolf was disappearing, he walked over to Atara. "What do you think, babe?" he asked. "Very impressive. You make me jealous." She smiled up at him.

Neko stood up once Assai had finished his show. "Okay, mine's not all that impressive, but it's okay I guess." Neko jumped into the air and did a front flip, landing in front of another dummy. (Well at least she was limber) Atara and Assai got closer so they could see what she was doing. When they got there, Neko closed her eyes and made seals with her hands. "Fire Lion Jutsu!" She opened her eyes and fire swept up from the ground chasing her as she jumped into the air. She was suspended in midair now as the fire swept around her to form a sort of coffin around her. Then it changed form and became a lioness with glowing red eyes.

The lion broke away from her and charged the dummy, leaving Neko to float back down to earth. Just as she landed, the lion crashed into the dummy leaving a charred place in the path it had followed and completely destroying the dummy.

Neko walked back to them and sat down on the ground. They did so also and then she looked at Atara. "You haven't learned your special jutsu yet have you? Well you see—Kaji told us—." Neko was interrupted by Kaji's voice.

"A certain blonde haired sand ninja told me that you were back, Atara. You've missed a lot since you were gone, but it would seem you haven't simply been vacationing. I see you've gotten stronger."

Atara looked up at her sensei and said innocently, "Yes sensei. I have been _training_ while I was gone." She left out the part about her killing people.

"I hope you can make up for the lost training. The chuunin exams are in one week and you haven't learned your special jutsu like you friends. By the way, here are your application forms. If you plan on participating, and I hope you do, you have to turn them in by the end of the week." He handed them their forms.

"Not much good that special jutsu will do, since he'll probably be able to copy it," Atara said more to herself than anyone else. Kaji had heard her though and he asked, "What are you talking about?" Atara blushed, noticing that he'd heard her. Then she stopped and said to him, "Sasuke has the Sharingan doesn't he? (How does she know that?) If he does, he'll be able to copy that move. My techniques require the physical skill and power that I alone possess so he'll not be able to copy my moves."

Kaji realized now how badly this victory meant to her. Atara had to fight and win over Sasuke. If she didn't she'd never forgive herself. _This is just the first step in her conquest for power. I hope she uses it for good like her mother. _

He watched Atara spar with Neko and then Assai and he realized that she was right. No one could copy her moves, not even with Sharingan. She had gotten her abilities from her parents; they were a type of bloodline.

Atara had knocked Assai to the ground with a harmless blast of chakra, and she was now leaning over him. "A—Assai are you okay?" she asked timidly. Assai suddenly jumped at her, and saying, "Gotcha!" Atara's worried face turned into an annoyed one and she hit Assai in the back of the head causing him to fall back to the ground.

The whole time Neko was giggling and when Assai hit the ground the second time, her giggle became a chuckle, which became a laugh, which became a snort (nah, just kidding about the snort thing).

End: Yeah so Atara is kind of moody isn't she anyways that's another chapter down. Yay me!!!

Neko Pairing:

Naruto0

Rock Lee1

Shikamaru0

Neji1

Kiba0

Shino0

So plz vote so I can make Neko not be alone anymore (otherwise she might start singing: cuz im all alone, there's no one here beside me,…) yeah I think u get it.


	10. Chapter 10 The First Test

Lone Wolf

**Intro**: Chapter 10, yeah I type and think kinda fast. Okay, Atara, Assai, and Neko are going to take the chuunin selection exam with the others. The first test is going to be kinda funny, if you have this weird sense of humor like me and that's where this chapter is going.

**Disclaimer**: I don't own Naruto or any of the original Naruto characters. I do own my own OC's, which so far, yes so far, include Atara, Assai, Neko, Kaji, Tenshi, and Takai. You may not use Atara, Assai, or Neko.

**The First Test, Chapter 10**

Atara woke up to see the sunshine lighting up her room and Assai came in her room with a warm smile. He brought her breakfast along with his own, two bowls of piping hot soup, French toast, and orange juice. Atara smiled and asked, "What's the occasion?"

"The chuunin exams start today, Atara. I just thought that we'd better get a good breakfast so that we'd be ready for it." Atara smiled and took her food and ate in her bed, with Assai sitting next to her on a stool by her bed eating.

Suddenly a grey pup with a star over her eye jumped onto the bed followed by a black panther with pale blue eyes. "Hey Hoshi and Yabun!" Atara exclaimed, acknowledging them. "So did you guys train with your partners while I was gone?" she asked Assai.

"Yeah, we had to connect with their chakra so that we could learn our special moves. Kaji also told us that wherever you were, Yabun would still be teaching you things. HE said that they do it automatically. That's what these bracelets are for. By wearing them, they recognize us as their partners and they teach us what they know. In this way, we both have the same strengths. So what did Yabun teach you?"

Atara looked into Assai's eyes. She was silent for a while and in this time Yabun walked up to her and laid his head on her lap and closed his eyes. Atara finally replied, "He taught me of this wonderfully magical place called Home. When I was striving for power, Yabun helped me to realize that this is where I wanted to be—with you, and all my friends and rivals. This is my home and these people here will still like me just as much when I'm worthless as when I'm the most powerful ninja in the world. Ultimately he taught me, power is nothing compared to love."

Assai's eyes were kind of watered up now and he fought back his tears of happiness and understanding. "Is that why you came back? You found your place?" he asked.

"Yes, my place is here. I can't be a lone wolf, not now that I know what it's like on the other side of that line." She had a warm smile. Suddenly, they both heard a knock on her door. "Atara? Assai?" Neko's voice called them from outside.

"Come in Neko," Atara said politely. "Sorry to barge in but you didn't answer and…"

"Don't worry about it, Neko," Atara and Assai said simultaneously. Neko came and sat on the bed, and she was greeted by an excited Hoshi who gave her many kisses. Then Tenpin jumped up onto the bed and tackled Hoshi playfully. Although they'd grow a lot, they were still just like a little pup and a cub.

Yabun looked sad that he'd been excluded from the action. Noticing this, Hoshi came up to him and laid beside him grooming and licking his face. Tenpin wasn't as quick to go to Yabun. It had been a while since they'd seen each other. They touched noses and Yabun gave her a lick on the nose in friendship.

The three partners laid there for a few seconds before Hoshi started something by grabbing Yabun's ear and they ran down the stairs playing. The three teens laughed together before they decided to walk around the village. "Maybe we can go talk to our friends before the start of the exams," Neko said as she led the way. Atara caught up with her and she and Neko ran away from Assai forcing him to run to keep up. Finally, Neko and Atara saw Naruto and his team eating at the ramen shop.

When Naruto spotted Neko, he said loudly, "HI NEKO!" Everyone that was standing around turned to look. Neko had an annoyed expression on her face as did Sakura, who smacked him in the head. Sasuke had to force himself to keep from grinning the slightest bit at Neko's face. Atara was grinning on the inside but she didn't laugh out loud although she wanted to.

"Hey Naruto, Sakura…Sasuke," Atara said quietly. Sasuke looked at her with the same gaze she gave him. It wasn't hatred, but more like an understanding that they were rivals. They had to try to be better than the other. Neko sat down between Sasuke and Sakura and started talking to Sakura.

Atara went to sit and talk to Naruto as Assai's figure finally appeared from behind a building. He saw them and started towards them. Atara didn't even look towards him as she said, "About time, Assai."

Assai gave her an annoyed look and he sat on the stool beside her as she continued her conversation with Naruto. "Wanna have another contest?" Naruto asked. "I wanna win this time." "Nah, not hungry," Atara said. "Oh, well that would have been better for me," he replied to her answer. He turned around and watched Sakura with jealousy as he saw her casting flirting glances toward Sasuke.

"Naruto, you like Sakura don't you?" Atara asked. "Huh," Naruto said, snapping out of his trance. "How do you know?" he asked. "It's kind of obvious. Why don't you just try to be more romantic and less well—loud. Maybe she'd consider you then." "What makes you say that?" Naruto asked in an unusually quiet voice keeping the overall volume of their conversation low.

"Naruto, look at the person she likes. Sasuke, he's mysterious, strong, mature, quiet. And she likes him because of it. So why don't you just try to be more romantic towards her and a little bit quieter. In that way, you will be like Sasuke only you'll be paying her some attention and then she might find that she likes you."

Assai looked at Naruto and gave him an approving gaze. He stood behind Atara with his hand on her shoulder. "Atara and I were just friends until I expressed my feelings. If you never tell her then she'll never care."

Naruto was thinking about his friend's comments when Sasuke got up and started walking away with Sakura who called, "C'mon Naruto! We'll be late if we don't hurry." He said goodbye and then ran away following them. Neko came over to Assai and Atara as she watched him going away. "We better go too," she replied.

They nodded and followed the other three. When they finally got to "Room 301" they saw that a crowd had gathered. Two leaf ninjas were tormenting a weird boy in green spandex with black hair. When they had made their way to the front, Sasuke had told them that this whole thing was a fake and that he was going to the real room 301. Before they knew it, the black haired boy was in between Sasuke and the other boy both of his hands gripped on their foot.

Atara looked at him confused. Was he the same person that was being teased a moment ago? Sasuke, Naruto, and Sakura left the crowd and proceeded to go to the next floor. Atara, Assai, and Neko followed. Neko thought, _How did he do that? He caught their kicks, both of them. He is fast, faster than anyone I've ever seen._

She silently admired him for his feat and wished she could do that. When she looked up from her daze, he was there again, this time confronting Sasuke for a battle. Atara wanted to see this. As the battle commenced she saw Sasuke's futile attempt at using Sharingan on the black-haired ninja.

She stood off to the side and watched as Sasuke suffered a humiliating defeat. When they finished she walked up to the black-haired ninja in spandex. "I am Atara. What's your name?" she asked remembering Sasuke's comment about giving your name first. "Rock Lee," he replied. Satisfied, Atara decided she'd torture Sasuke a bit.

"Don't get hurt too bad before the exam. I don't want to fight someone who's already taken a good beating by some bushy eyebrow boy." Sasuke gave her a hateful look as did Sakura who clearly didn't like Atara saying things like that to Sasuke. Lee was totally mad with himself now. Not only did he ruin it with Sakura but now this other girl was making fun of him. Naruto was trying to suppress his glee that someone was not in complete admiration of Sasuke.

Everyone walked away now, going to the third floor. Atara, Assai, and Neko stayed in a group behind Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke. When they finally got to room 301, the other people were already gathered and Naruto was busying himself with yelling. When the instructor came down, everyone took a seat.

Assai sat next to Sakura, Neko next to Naruto (opposite side from Hinata), and Atara found herself next to an annoyed Sasuke. When he saw her, he rolled his eyes and asked, "Why aren't you sitting by Assai?" Before Atara could answer the instructor had ordered them to be silent and was giving directions for the test.

Once the test had started, Atara looked at the questions and realized that she knew none of the answers. A few minutes into the test, she noticed that Sasuke had stopped. When she stopped and thought about this test. Her eyes widened as she realized that they were actually encouraging them to cheat, but not get caught. Suddenly a plan came to her mind.

She focused her chakra into her finger and shot it at the power cords leading to the lights. Everything went black. While the lights were off, she jumped over the desktop and up to the person in front of Sasuke. She noted his answers and quickly returned to her seat just in time to get back before the lights came back on.

When they did, the instructor looked at her and a grin came over his face and he shook his head as everyone continued the test. Atara wrote down her answers quickly and then waited for the tenth question.

After the test had been in progress for about 45 minutes, the instructor asked them to stop. "Time for the tenth question. There is a rule for this question." _Rules, rules, rules: Power has no rules. Get on with it_, Atara thought slightly annoyed. "If you get this question wrong then you'll never be able to take this exam again. You'll always be a genin. And for those who don't wish to take it, you and both of your teammates will have to leave." Atara rolled her eyes. _Even so, you can still get stronger even if your stupid rank doesn't increase. Hurry up. _Neither Assai nor Neko raised their hand. They weren't scared either.

After he'd eliminated all of the scaredy cat people, he announced that those remaining had passed the first test. _No tenth question. Funny, he did it to try and cut the number of us down. Good job._

A sudden commotion in the front of the room alerted them of their next test instructor.

End: Right so, was the fact that she used her shadow powers to cheat funny at all. Probably not, but who cares? Alright now they are going to take the second test in the next chap and to omit confusion they will get their scroll from a random team from like the grass village or something so that I don't have to name them and they will not be in the way of any of the actual teams that passed the second test in the manga from passing. Please R&R.

Neko Pairing:

Naruto0

Rock Lee1

Shikamaru0

Neji1

Kiba0

Shino0

So plz vote so I can make Neko not be alone anymore (otherwise she might start singing: cuz im all alone, there's no one here beside me,…) yeah I think u get it. (Shrek: Donkey sang that.)


	11. Chapter 11 The Second Test

Lone Wolf

**Intro**: Chapter 11, nothing much to say about it only SECOND TEST.

**Disclaimer**: I don't own Naruto or any of the original Naruto characters. I do own my own OC's, which so far, yes so far, include Atara, Assai, Neko, Kaji, Tenshi, and Takai. You may not use Atara, Assai, or Neko. Three new characters will be introduced at the end of this chapter.

Neko Pairing:

Naruto0

Rock Lee1

Shikamaru0

Neji1

Kiba0

Shino0

PLEASE vote for Neko pairing.

**The Second Test****, Chapter 11**

As the genins stood waiting by the gates listening to the horrible sounds of the Forest of Death, Anko, their instructor, was informing them about the extent of the test. "You will be in the Forest of Death for five days, during which time you must acquire a heaven and an earth scroll if you want to pass." She also said that they'd be cut in half at least by the time that the test was over.

Everyone except Atara and a few others was worried about the five days in that forest. "Pft…If anyone messes with me I'll kill them," she whispered. Somehow Anko had heard that and was giving her a strange look, the look got stranger when she saw Atara's eyes. (Okay so yeah, no one wants to mess with a chick whose got red eyes and is threatening to kill someone right?)

Suddenly Atara felt something brush against her butt and she spun around drawing one dagger and putting it to the guy's throat, which was standing right behind her. His pervert eyes turned into shocked eyes. "You're not excluded," she hissed to him. When he saw her eyes he became unable to move. Her hair was also floating a bit as if a soft wind was carrying it, but there was no wind. (hmm strange huh?) –Hint hint-

Gaara was looking at her with another of those looks that leaves you thinking, "Can he be confused?". Atara was threatening to kill someone right here? That would have been kind of scary if it weren't for Shukaku, considering that he and his siblings had been with her the whole way to Konoha. Temari and Kankuro had much more afraid looks on their faces which they quickly got rid of when Atara didn't move as Assai reached his hands around her waist and pulled her away from the scared perv dude. (He doesn't have a name or a description cuz im lazy like Shikamaru) Sasuke smirked and thought, _she knows his hands anywhere._

Atara saw his look and glared at him, guessing what he was thinking. Her guess was probably right. She wanted to ask if his suddenly perverted mind was due to Kakashi's book (aka Icha Icha) but she decided not to.

Anko interrupted the strange scene by telling them to go receive their team's scroll. Atara and her team were some of the last along with Sasuke and his team. When her team received the heaven scroll, she waited until she was outside to stuff it in her jacket, of course not before taunting Sasuke.

Of course, he had seen it and part of him was dying to try and get their scroll when they received an earth scroll. Then again maybe he didn't, he still wanted to fight her and kick her butt while everyone was watching. (Yeah right too bad Sasuke, you'll never—stopping here)

Assai looked at Sasuke before he forced Atara to turn around and continue walking to their gate. After everyone was to their gates, Anko instructed them to begin the test. The gates opened and everyone entered the forest.

After they'd only been inside the forest for less than an hour, Atara had spotted the pervert from earlier. He had not seen them. She stopped, and so did her teammates. She motioned to where their enemies were and they all followed.

_Time to settle the score_, she thought evilly. (Yes, she's a murderer so she can do that) She took the lead. Anko had said there would be deaths and she would make sure of it. _The perv is first._

Once he was in sight she drew her daggers silently. They had stopped to check their surroundings, and Atara's only thoughts were, _perfect_.

…Perv's POV…

We saw three genins including the ultra sexy one whose ass I will never grab again, the red head and the blonde boy. My team's leader threw shuriken at them and as they hit them they poofed away, the sexy girl jumped onto me.

…normal POV…

Atara jumped onto the pervert's back and wrapped her dagger around his throat and put pressure onto it and then she pulled it out to her right. Blood spurted everywhere from the guy's throat. Neko had jumped the taller one and Assai had taken out the short one. When they had knocked them unconscious and found the earth scroll (how did they know they had the earth scroll?) Neko and Assai were surprised to see the pervert lying on the ground dead.

Atara had his blood on her face. She wiped it off and looked at it for a few seconds with a strange glint in her eyes. When she looked up, Neko and Assai were staring at her in shock. "What? He pissed me off."

Atara could feel someone's presence and as she looked into the tree across from her, she could see three figures one of them had a gourd on his back. Assai and Neko turned around to look and they were gone.

…With Temari…

"Did you stop just so you could see, Gaara?" Temari asked as they made their way through the forest. He did not reply. Gaara.

"You didn't think she'd do it, did you?" she asked.

"No," he finally answered (he didn't think she could kill someone without regret like him). Kankuro and Temari exchanged a glance. What was up with Gaara?

…With Anko…

She was standing outside the forest still. An eerie feeling was cast over her as Atara killed the pervert inside the forest. "Someone's died," she guessed. _That girl was strong for a genin. She'll definitely pass this test with ease._

End: Weird ending right? Well after reading someone else's story I decided that I should write in more than just one POV so that dead perv was my testing it. I think it'll work and I might start using it more often. It gives different outlooks on the scene.

Neko Pairing:

Naruto0

Rock Lee1

Shikamaru0

Neji1

Kiba0

Shino0

So plz vote so I can make Neko not be alone anymore (otherwise she might start singing: cuz im all alone, there's no one here beside me,…) yeah I think u get it. (Shrek: Donkey sang that.)


	12. Chapter 12 Sparring and Jadoku

Lone Wolf

**Intro: **Okay I can't think of anything for this chapter but haha I got my CD player taken away at school and it wuz funny. I was listening 2 Nickleback.

**Disclaimer**: I don't own Naruto or any of the original Naruto characters. I do own my own OC's, which so far, yes so far, include Atara, Assai, Neko, Kaji, Tenshi, and Takai. You may not use Atara, Assai, or Neko.

Neko Pairing:

Naruto0

Rock Lee1

Shikamaru0

Neji1

Kiba0

Shino0

PLEASE vote for Neko pairing.

**Sparring and Jadoku, ****Chapter 12**

It had been three days since the start of the test. Using Atara's keen animal-like senses, they had managed to find food. Most of the teams were staying away from Atara after the incident before the test. This only aided them in being able to make it to the tower safely.

On the fourth day, Atara woke up early. The light from the sun had still not made its appearance and she walked around in the dark forest.

Suddenly, she tripped over something that she couldn't see. This was surprising considering her perfect night vision. She quickly pulled herself off of the ground. When she looked in front of her, a familiar red-headed ninja was standing in front of her.

"Gaara?" she asked. "Yes," he answered. _Odd_, she thought. "What are you doing Atara?" he asked her thinking it was too dark for her to see. "Uh…hunting? The animals move more at night."

"You're lying." Atara looked down. She really didn't want him to know that she could actually SEE in the dark. It just made her weirder. "Taking a walk," she answered truthfully. "Wait Gaara did you trip me?" He answered, "Yes."

"Why?" she asked looking at his emotionless face. She happened to be unusually close to him considering the whole sand thing. (she doesn't know about it I just put it in there so you know its not the BF/GF type of close). He sat down on the ground and motioned for her to do the same. Once she'd sat down, he asked, "Why did you do it?"

"Huh?" she asked. "Why did you kill him, the perv?" he asked. Atara looked him straight in the eyes and answered without emotion, "He pissed me off."

"To think we brought you all the way from Suna and you're crazy, too." Atara smiled warmly, while Gaara's face remained the same. "I probably should have warned you, huh?" "Not me, but maybe Kankuro. He's weak."

"Compared to you?" she asked with a knowing glint in her eyes. "You could beat him," he answered. Atara had an annoyed expression on her face. "Are you calling me weak?"

"Maybe," he said with a very unGaara-ish smirk on his face. (a/n any emotion is unGaara-ish) "Want to spar with me Gaara?" she asked nicely. "Are you sure you want to?" he asked. She was weird. "Yes, it should help me to get stronger."

…Gaara's POV…

I followed Atara into the clearing. She'd taken me to a place far away from her friends. Normally, people would duck for cover but she didn't. She was definitely a strange girl this Atara. _She'll regret this_, I thought. It amused me that someone, a girl, would challenge me. So I accepted her proposal.

I stood on one side of the clearing while she took a stance with her daggers drawn on the other side of the clearing. _Like that'll work._

…Normal POV…

Atara was slightly confused as Gaara stood with his arms crossed. She shook off the feeling and charged him, her daggers engulfed in flames as in her dreams.

As she got close to him and attempted a strike, a wave of sand blocked her attack. She continued to attack and jump back as the sand came out of the gourd. _Hmm_, she thought. Finally she realized his weakness, or rather, the sand's weakness. She jumped at him once more and got herself caught in a hold.

Although not according to plan, she played along. She focused her chakra and made her body get hotter and hotter until the sand started turning clear. Glass! The sand tried to get away from her but it was too late. Atara transferred the heat down the stream of sand and up to the edge of the gourd.

Gaara could not move. Before he could do anything in his slowed state, Atara rushed up to him and put her dagger up to his throat causing his eyes to widen in shock. She squinted her eyes at him evilly. "I win," she whispered in his ear.

She released him from his dangerous position and broke the glass away as she walked away. "I won't tell anyone, Gaara," she said stopping, her back to him. "Why didn't you do it?" he asked her. "I have no reason to," she said turning her head slightly towards him before watching him disappear in a cloud of sand. She sighed and thought, _Well that was fun._

After she left, the clearing appeared to be empty. However, in the shadows a tall man with dark green hair and red eyes stood watching Atara. He was dressed in black, with a black shirt, dark chuunin vest, pants, holster, and boots. He wore a leaf headband with a slash through it around his left leg. His black cape was long and wavy (like a dementor from HP 3).

…Strange Man's POV…

_She's strong. Did I see red in her eyes? Perhaps he did attack her, that evil bastard. To think I trained him. I've got to set this thing right. _I watch as Atara retreats from the clearing. _But how do I get her to trust me? _I think as I stalk her form. She enters another clearing where her two sleeping teammates are along with what looks to be a wolf, a lion, and a panther. _Weird, well I can't confront her here. _As I start to walk away, a twig snaps under my feet.

Turning my head ever so slowly I notice that her ears picked up the sound and I could now feel her dark gaze upon me. Before I could react, she was standing in front of me, her dagger to my throat. My eyes darted to the curved blade which fit around my neck perfectly. I felt a trickle of warm liquid run down my neck from the blade and down my shirt.

She had a satisfied grin on her face. Her eyes were indeed the very same red that I had predicted, filled with the images of fire from THAT day. In them, I could see pain, love, hate, power, and grief. This was definitely her, Atara daughter of my ex-student Takai Akuma. He had bitten her, poisoning her innocence. The creature was inside of her now, the creature of the shadows.

She put her face close to mine and hissed in my ear, "Who are you and why were you spying?" Even more evil she said, "Were you waiting for me to undress or something, you pervert?"

"I'm no pervert," I said calmly considering that I was bleeding from the neck where a dagger was still resting. "Then why were you spying?" "I was actually looking for you, Atara Akuma."

"How do you know my na—wait my last name is Akuma? But doesn't that mean demon?" she asked confused. Her grip loosened a bit on the dagger. "Yes, your father's family name was Akuma and so your name is Akuma. It doesn't mean you're a demon, although…"

"Although what?" she asked her eyes squinted at me, her grip strengthened again. "Please, let me go. I don't won't to fight." She pulled out yet another dagger and placed it on my neck also, making another cut. _Okay pleas aren't helping_, I thought. _Answer her question._

"I'm pretty sure that if you look you have two puncture wounds on your neck, although they are probably healed by now." She shook her head as she remembered the mark. I noticed that she wore her leaf headband around her neck so she obviously knew about it. She pulled the second dagger away as I continued, "Although you may not believe me, your father did that to you. It is a type of demon and by biting you on the neck, he sealed it within you."

Atara glanced downward at it, although she couldn't see it from its position, before saying with hate in her voice, "I believe you." _Odd, how would she believe a complete stranger…Had they told her about her father's treachery?_

"By the way my name is Jadoku." "Did I ask for your name?" she spat out. "Ha, you bleed easily. Gaara would have fun with you." "Are you trying to say that I am weak?" I ask her calmly.

"Maybe, since you can't even get away from me." I smirk at this. Her eyes widen in surprise as I pry her dagger out of her hand with ease and appear behind her the dagger at HER throat now. "Uh…okay maybe not." I grin and release her as she admits defeat. Handing her dagger back to her, I say, "Listen, you can't beat me and I don't want to fight you. I want to help you."

Atara rolls her eyes. "Yeah right." "No seriously. I did a really bad thing and the only way I can make up for it is to train you." "And why would I want you to…" Atara's voice trailed off as she looked into my red eyes. "They're the same as mine." "Yes, I have the power also."

End: This is the what—twelfth chapter of LW (Lone Wolf, in case you didn't know) Neko will soon be in need of a pairing since there will be a dance of sorts to which she must attend and have someone to go with. Ughh…don't make me have to choose someone for her. Right now there is a tie, break the tie and that boy is in, okay I don't care if its only two votes, just break the freakin' tie.

Neko Pairing:

Naruto0

Rock Lee1

Shikamaru0

Neji1

Kiba0

Shino0

PLEASE vote for Neko pairing.


	13. Chapter 13 His Proposal and The Tower

Lone Wolf

**Intro:** Ugh…Tired of this stupid intro crap, might delete it. Do I need it I mean, you just want to read the story right? Okay so no Intro unless important. –note to self, no intro unless important, okay got it-

**Disclaimer:** might cut that out too. I think you got the point. I don't own Naruto but I do own my own OC's which are Atara, Assai, Neko, Tenshi, Kaji, Takai Akuma, and newly added Jadoku.

Neko Pairing:

Naruto0

Rock Lee1

Shikamaru0

Neji1

Kiba0

Shino0

PLEASE vote for Neko pairing.

**His Proposal and the Tower****, Chapter 13**

Jadoku and Atara were standing in the bushes as the sun began to appear. As the morning light flooded into the forest, Jadoku was telling Atara, "You see, I trained your father when he was a chuunin, a fresh graduate. He'd been attacked by this thing and I was the only one who could help him to harness its power. I never knew that he'd turn out so evil. When his training was complete he could go all the way to the third form and maintain it despite the huge amount of chakra that it drained. The last day that I saw him, he was acting weird."

"What do you mean weird, like psycho weird?" Atara asked. "Yes, he said he would kill her and that he had to. She was weak and he had to kill the weak, they were in the way of the strong. He had loved her but after I'd helped him to become so strong, he turned evil and didn't want to be distracted so he attacked. Takai went back to Konoha and bit you while you slept planting his mark on you. Then he got into a fight with your mother and they took it outside."

Jadoku stopped and thought about what had happened. He wondered if it was his fault that Atara did not have a family. Strong as he may be, it pained him to know that she had to grow up like he did, thinking that no one loved him and there was no place for him.

"It wasn't your fault that he killed my mother and did this to me," Atara said reading his mind. "How did you know that's what I was thinking?" "Obviously you didn't know my mom. Kakashi said that I had inherited the ancient psychic gene from my mother's side of the family." "Oh."

"He killed your mom and even though he made it look as though it was because of the fight he'd planned it out before he left. I could have stopped him, but it wasn't my business. He never…never said that…" Jadoku was obviously loosing his cool.

"That he had a daughter?" Atara asked knowingly. "Yes, if I would have known I could have kept you from growing up like me." "You had to grow up alone too?" "Yes," my parents left me when I was a young child. Their minds had become possessed by evil and they left me to fend for myself."

Atara looked down at the ground. His parents hadn't loved him. At least her mother had loved her, but this Jadoku had no one. He was completely alone.

"I'm sorry that you had to live like that Jadoku." Atara saw that although his face was strong it was also sad. Who knew she could have an effect on someone who she'd never known before like this.

"Jadoku, you said that you were looking for me? What did you want from me?" "No, it's not what I want, it's what you want. Power, right? Or is it control over which you currently have none?" Atara looked at him with a flat stare. He was right but this guy was weird. "I'm offering to train you, Atara. The question is, 'Will you accept?'

Atara was already thinking about his proposal. She had to defeat her father and this was her chance to gain more control over this other side of her. If it worked out right then she'd be able to face him and possibly win. Just as she was about to answer, her keen ears picked up the sounds of Assai waking up.

She looked and found that her guess was correct. Assai was sitting upright and looking around. Thankfully he could not see them. Jadoku whispered hurriedly, "If you make up your mind you can come see me at my old house. It's the old one on the edge of town, the one everyone says is haunted. I'll be watching you." Atara nodded and Jadoku disappeared.

She walked out of the bushes and over to Assai. "What were you doing Atara?" he asked sleepily. "Taking a piss, sleepy head," she answered playfully. With that, she bent over and gave him a kiss. "Today is the fourth day. We need to start making our way to the tower Assai."

"Yeah, but we don't quite know which direction to go in do we?" he asked. "We'll find it, I'm going to look," she said pointing to what must have been the tallest tree in this area of the forest. Assai nodded and woke Neko up telling her to pack up for the journey.

Atara sent her chakra to her feet and climbed the tree in maybe three seconds. The wind blew her hair out of her face and she scanned the surroundings. She enjoyed being up here where she could see everything around her. To her right she saw many birds stir from the trees in fear.

Someone had just walked over there. In front of her she could see the shadow of the tower. She searched around to make sure that it wasn't just a trick. Nope there were no other towers in this area, so she concluded that this was where they needed to go.

When she jumped her way back down the tree, she found that Assai and Neko were already packed and having a conversation with each other about what might be in the scrolls. "Are you guys ready to go?" she asked. They looked at her and nodded.

"Okay then time to head to the tower," she finished pointing in the direction of it. They did not say anything else but followed her as she led the way to the tower.

…Day five(last day of second test) 10:00AM…

Neko was exhausted and Assai was breathing hard, however, Atara was not showing any weakness. Her thoughts were still on Jadoku and what he'd asked her. She had thought about it for most of the time which kept her from hearing Neko and Assai's grumbling and complaining about tiredness.

Assai was beginning to wonder what was wrong with her. He sped up as much as he could in his tired state to catch up to her. "Atara…what's…wrong? Why…aren't…you…talking to me?" he asked panting.

"Nothing's wrong. I just want to make it to the tower in time and if we stop to talk then we'll be slowed down. We've still a good mile left to go and its nearly noon. Once we get to the tower we'll rest."

"Oh. Okay," he said slightly disappointed at her seriousness. Something was bothering her and she was covering it up. He could tell.

…2 hours later…

"FINALLY!" Atara heard someone yell. When she got to the tower she saw that it was Naruto. _Figures_, she thought. Sasuke turned around to face them and smirked at Atara who returned the look.

"Ahh…I see you made it out alive Atara," he said mockingly. Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke had stopped before they went inside. Some white-haired dude (Kabuto) was looking at the black-haired girl who had exchanged a look with Sasuke.

Atara felt his gaze upon her and turned her head towards him. Something about him wasn't right, but as he felt her prying into his mind he cleared it of all thoughts and went into the building.

"Atara what's up?" Neko asked, trying to figure out what was wrong with him that Atara had sensed. "She's probably scared," Sasuke taunted. "So that's why you're so jumpy? You're scared?" she asked. Sasuke glared at her. "Whatever."

Sakura was looking quite pissed right about now. "Come on Sasuke-kun, let's go." "Yeah, Sasuke-_kun_ you don't want your wittle girlfriend to go by herself do you," Atara taunted back. Sasuke gave her a look while he thought, _Yes I do and she's not my girlfriend._

Because of Atara's developing psychic powers she knew that he was thinking that and therefore she grinned. He rolled his eyes at her as Sakura drug him into the building.

Assai motioned for her to go into the next door. When they all came in, Neko and Assai looked around confused. Atara was quite confused herself but hid this emotion. "Maybe you're supposed to open the stupid scrolls," she said pulling them out of her pocket. She handed one to Assai and held the other. Neko looked worried and she closed her eyes.

Atara and Assai opened the scrolls at the same time. Their eyes widened and they chunked them across the room. A poof of smoke erupted and as it cleared, a somewhat familiar face, to Atara, appeared. It was Jadoku.

"Ja--," Atara started. He silenced her with a hand.

…twenty minutes later…

(felt like skipping all the stupid babble and get straight to the preliminaries)

All of the genins that had passed this second test were standing around now waiting for the Hokage to begin speaking. After explaining everything, which Atara almost fell asleep trying to listen to, he announced that the preliminaries would begin immediately. Atara grinned and looked over at Sasuke. She hoped desperately that she would be fighting him.

When the names came on the board, they were not Atara vs. Sasuke, but instead read, "Akuma Atara VS. Irihi." As everyone else walked up the stairs to wait, Atara was left standing with a short haired girl across from her. She stared her down and as they exchanged a challenging glance, the examiner (who was coughing…a lot) said, "Begin!"

End: Okay so this is probably a short chapter and all but forgive me, the next one is going to be longer more than likely. There will be much fighting and observation. Right so three new OCs will be introduced next chapter.

Neko Pairing:

Naruto0

Rock Lee1

Shikamaru0

Neji1

Kiba0

Shino0

PLEASE vote for Neko pairing.

Yes I put it twice maybe you'll notice and respond.


	14. Chapter 14 Bloodshed and the Hospital

Lone Wolf

**Intro:** This is the start of the preliminaries.

**Disclaimer:** DO NOT OWN NARUTO. Do own my own OC's the team, Kaji, Tenshi, newly introduced: Jadoku and Irihi, Raion, and Akabara (this chapter)

**Recap: **When the names came on the board, they were not Atara vs. Sasuke, but instead read, "Akuma Atara VS. Irihi." As everyone else walked up the stairs to wait, Atara was left standing with a short haired girl across from her. She stared her down and as they exchanged a challenging glance, the examiner said, "Begin!"

**Bloodshed and the Hospital,**** Chapter 14**

Atara and Irihi glared at each other. Something about this Irihi girl was strange. Atara jumped back while sending shuriken towards her head. She dodged them and caught Atara off guard from the back. Atara spun around and stabbed a kunai into her stomach. Irihi fell to the ground, the kunai stuck in her. As she knelt down, she grabbed the handle and pulled the weapon out of her flesh.

"Go Atara! You can beat her!" Assai and Neko were shouting to her. "What a bunch of idiots," Irihi mumbled as she stood up. Atara's jaw hung open a little bit before she said bitterly, "Excuse me?" "You heard. I said they're a bunch of idiots." Atara's eyes narrowed.

In the stands Sasuke was standing next to Assai. He said amusedly, "Uh oh she's pissed." "Huh?" Assai asked looking at Atara's face. Her eyes did seem more fiery than usual.

Atara summoned her chakra to her hands and she charged Irihi, ready to beat the crap out of her for what she'd said. Irihi attempted to dodge Atara's attack but Atara came up in front of her where ever she went. Finally Atara landed a burning punch on Irihi sending her flying across the floor, a black spot on her clothing.

Atara stood waiting for her to get up. She stopped channeling her chakra to her hands while she waited. The girl was really making a show about getting up off the ground. _She must be weak_, Atara thought.

Suddenly Atara felt something stab her in the back. She fell to the ground, her own kunai sticking out of her. Irihi was reaching her open hand out towards Atara's head, a flow of strange chakra coming out of it, when Atara looked up at her.

Her face was contorted in an evil glare. Her eyes were burning red like fire, something that had never happened before. The short-haired girl was suddenly thrown back from Atara as two black demon wings sprouted from her back around her shoulder area. Atara stood up as a tail with a blade the shape of a scythe on the end shot out from underneath her clothing. She bared her teeth at the girl who was on the floor to reveal long fangs. Her face had seemingly darkened a bit as she'd began her transformation.

"Atara?" Assai was saying. He'd never seen this side of her and now that he had, it scared him. "Assai what is that?" Sasuke asked. Assai's answer was not very helpful. "I wish I knew."

From the corner of the room in a shadow of a doorway, a certain green-haired ninja was watching Atara. He grinned as he thought, _She was able to release it with anger._

Atara walked over to Irihi and opened her mouth to reveal a split tongue. She could smell fear on the girl as she picked her up with an overly strong hand and threw her against a wall. She followed the strike up with a powerful kick and several punches, each burning into the girl's flesh. Irihi was unable to move now. "Never call Assai an idiot," she hissed to the girl before doing a front flip in the air (she's flying) and striking her back with the blade on her tail (odd). The point struck the girl's back and penetrated the skin, breaking the spinal cord and snapping the backbone in half.

The girl's body fell to the ground and blood poured out around her. Atara's anger was satisfied now and she turned back to normal as she softly landed on the ground. The examiner started to walk over to Irihi when he was interrupted by Atara's voice. "Don't bother. That last strike broke her back and severed her spinal cord. She's dead." His face was filled with terror as he checked for a pulse and found that she was right. Atara had killed Irihi.

Atara had made her way back up the stairs, getting scared looks from all but Gaara who seemed impressed (???). Atara stood by Kakashi who scooted away a little in case she was to sprout wings again. She looked at him innocently, pretending as though nothing had happened before waiting for the next fight to commence.

"Winner, Atara Ak--," the examiner started before an explosion interrupted him. Three figures could be seen within the smoke and as it cleared Atara could see that one of them had black hair and red eyes just like her.

"Kakashi is that him?" she asked the siver-haired jounin beside her. "Yes, Takai Akuma, but please Atara not here, not after…" he let his voice trail off as he noticed that the silly genin had already transported herself to stand in front of her father.

The green-haired ninja buried his face in his arm. _Oh great, she just used a lot of chakra but she still wants to fight him and with no training. This is bad._

"Hello Atara," Takai hissed between his slit tongue and fangs. He was already transforming. "I would say hello father but you are NOT my father. You and I are nothing alike," Atara hissed back. "I saw you kill that girl. Good job, honey, you're getting stronger." "Don't speak to me as if I'm your little girl and you're the perfect dad, because I'm not and you're not."

Takai's wings were slowly coming out from under his clothing and his black cape pushed to the side to let them come out. Atara drew her daggers and she could feel her weakened body begin to transform again. She couldn't control it but it didn't bother her. Only she'd already used up a lot of chakra. This battle was one-way and she knew it but she didn't care. She would fight anyway.

Her wings sprouted out again as they had done before. Now the two shadow demons were facing off. They rose into the air. Takai held out his hand and motioned for Atara to come at him. She snuck up behind him and attempted to slash his throat but he got behind her and kicked her back causing her to fall to the ground. She landed nimbly like a cat on the ground, kneeling with her right hand supporting her.

She pushed herself off with her feet and came at her father, glowing red daggers in hand. She managed to slash one of his wings as he spun around to dodge her direct attack. She flew back in front of him preparing to strike again but as she flew at him, he raised a clawed fist and punched her in the stomach several times. Atara fell to the ground landing hard on her back.

She glared at him as she pulled herself back up. She summoned fire into her hands with her own chakra and Takai laughed evilly. "Okay then if you want to play that way," he said between evil laughs as he summoned fire into his hands. Atara didn't let his fire get any bigger as she threw the fire at him. He jumped over it, successfully avoiding its damage.

What he didn't see was that the fire had actually split in two as it was soaring through the air from the angle he saw it. After dodging the first fireball, he touched down on the ground just as a second plowed into his stomach. Suddenly fire came at Atara's face and she summoned chakra into her hands in maybe two seconds and threw the orb at the fire, deflecting it and making it hit her father.

When it hit him, he disappeared in a poof and Atara felt something slash her back. Blood stained her white shirt as she fell to the ground unconscious. "I could kill you right now, but that would hurt my pride," Takai hissed as Kakashi appeared by Atara's side. He laughed once more before disappearing along with his henchmen.

Sasuke and Assai were next to arrive on the floor, jumping down to see if Atara was even alive after that last blow. Assai's face was worried as Kakashi picked up her limp body and put her on the stretcher that the medics carried. Sasuke noticed and he put his hand on his shoulder. "She'll be okay. Atara's strong." Assai nodded.

The Hokage announced that the preliminaries would be completed tomorrow due to the events that had just happened and everyone was allowed to rest until the next day.

…Hospital…

The silver haired jounin came in following Atara's frail body on the stretcher. They'd currently stopped the bleeding as best as they could with her clothes on. Her breathing was shallow and this made him worry. The medics took Atara into a hospital room and Kakashi waited outside along with the others as three female medics came in to take off Atara's clothes and bandage her back to keep her from breathing to death.

After a few minutes, they walked out and Kakashi was told that he could see her. He walked into the room and looked at her sleeping form. _Why couldn't she have listened to me?_ He asked himself. _I tried to stop her. Hmm…Perhaps I should have grabbed her before she had the chance to go down there._

Atara's eyes opened a bit and she whispered, "Sorry I didn't listen Kakashi-sensei." "I bet you will next time," he said with amusement in his voice. Although she'd lost most of her strength, she managed to make a scowl at him. He looked pleased with himself. He spun around with a kunai in his hand as a green-haired ninja dressed in black, a large sword on his back, came up behind him.

"I'm here to see Atara," Jadoku said calmly. "How can I trust that you won't try to kill her?" Kakashi asked. Obviously this sort of behavior was expected from ninjas whose headband had a slash through the leaf symbol. "Aaa…Kakashi. I remember you from when we were genins. Jadoku is my name, remember?" "Oh…hehe," Kakashi said putting his kunai away as he rubbed the back of his head. "At least you're alert, Kakashi. I promise I won't harm Atara, I wish to talk to her." Kakashi nodded and walked out letting Jadoku talk with Atara.

"Why did you do such a stupid like that?" he spat as Kakashi closed the door. "S…Sorry sensei." "Sensei? Does that mean you accept?" he asked excitedly. "What do you think sensei?" she asked a mischievous smirk coming over her tired face. "Okay, I'll come get you once you're better. Why did you say yes by the way?"

"After…I lost…to him, I thought that…that you could help. I n…never transformed…before. Well not lately. You understand it right? This…this thing?" "Yes." "Well…that's why…I need you…t-to train me." "Good reason," Jadoku said with a grin. Atara's face remained serious. She'd lost to her father and nothing could make her laugh.

The only reason that she was able to transform was that she'd been angry at the girl before and her father made her even angrier. _Perhaps there's a way to release it without emotions_, She thought. _It's just like when I was younger._

As Jadoku was leaving Atara turned to face him and asked, "Sensei?" "Yes, Atara." "When I transformed before I was angry. Can I transform without my emotions being heightened like they were then?" "Of course. I would show you but we're kind of in a hospital." "Right…That would be awkward," Atara said, her strength coming back to her voice.

"Bye Atara," Jadoku said. Atara nodded as he walked out. She reached her hand up to her neck, rubbing her fingers over the old wound. _After all this time, I'll have control over that beast. _She laid back down on her hospital bed, and drifted into a deep sleep.

…_Atara's Dream (real dream, not vision)…_

_A girl with black hair and dark grey eyes (almost black) was walking down an alleyway on her way home. She had just had the worst day at the Academy and it was only her first day. On her way there, a girl had thrown gum in her hair which she pulled out along with many of her precious black hairs. Then, the loud-mouthed blonde (Naruto) had yelled right in her ear on accident as he was calling Sakura and she'd had a headache for the rest of the day. "Life sucks," she murmured. _

_From the shadows a young voice came, "Maybe for you weirdo. Why are you so emo all the time?" Atara kept walking knowing who it was: one of the civilian boys and his gang of tormentors. She didn't know the jerk's name, nor did she care. They always got on Atara's nerves. She was almost out of the dark place when something metal hit her head._

_Her eyes turned red as she turned around to see the boys through the pitch black darkness of the alley. One of them, the leader, was laughing at her and his comrades were laughing with him. Suddenly black wings and a tail appeared behind Atara. She flew into the air and jumped on top of the leader of the gang, slashing his throat with the blade on her tail._

_The others managed to see her silhouette through the darkness and ran away before Atara could catch them. She grinned in satisfaction at their fear. They wouldn't know it was her, they hadn't seen her change. She returned to normal as she stepped out into the light of the mid-afternoon sun. It hurt her eyes for a few moments as she adjusted. _

_Seeing the ripped state of her clothes, she decided to make a beeline for her home. She ran as fast as she could to avoid the gazes of people on the streets. She had a cape on but she still needed to go change since there was blood on it (bad thing about murdering)._

_As she came to her doorstep, a familiar friendly blonde haired ninja greeted her. 'Great Assai's not stupid. He'll notice the blood,' she thought regretting that she'd ever spoken to him. Now he kept appearing in her life on a regular basis, not to mention that he was at the Academy with her._

"_Hey Atara, you remember when those jerks took your daggers yesterday?" he asked. "Duh, it was yesterday. Why?" she asked, softening her voice as much as possible at the end. "I got them back for you," he said holding out the twin curved daggers in their black sheaths. _

"_Thanks Assai," Atara said quietly taking the daggers from him. She had started to walk into her house when a sudden noise like a blade slicing through the air entered her ear. She reached her empty hand out and caught the soaring kunai in mid-air._

_Assai's jaw dropped. 'How did she know it was coming? Sasuke was so quiet when he-.' His thoughts were interrupted as a satisfied Sasuke walked up to Atara. _

"_Nice catch, Atara," he said smirking. 'Great more rivalry,' Assai thought shaking his head as he left. "Uh…Sasuke I have to go. Sorry." Atara pointed to the blood on her clothes. Sasuke remembered the first time that she'd attacked someone and he'd found her under a tree crying about it. He'd taken her back to her house for her to change clothes and helped keep her out of sight. It would have been trouble if they'd seen her with blood all over her clothes._

"_What number is this?" he joked. "Sasuke it's not funny. I can't stand it when this happens. I have no control over this…thing. I don't even know what it is. And it's four." "You haven't told Assai yet have you?" he asked remembering how naïve he'd acted. "No and I'm not going to. He's one of the few people that actually talks to me. I'm not going to ruin that." "Okay," Sasuke said waving goodbye as he left._

_Atara walked into her house setting her daggers on the kitchen table. She snuck past the nanny (okay so Atara's only like seven and not old enough to take care of herself so she has a nanny, courtesy of the Hokage) and went into her bedroom on the second floor. She got herself some clean clothes and went across the hall to the bathroom. A board sqeaked under her foot and she heard the nanny move downstairs._

"_Where are you going?" she asked. "To take a bath." "Okay." Atara rolled her eyes and went in the bathroom. She took her clothes off and turned the water on, waiting for her bath to fill up. While she waited, she walked over to the mirror and looked at her neck. The mark was darker than it was usually. Two blood red marks from where she'd been bitten shown like a neon sign against her pale skin. She rubbed them gently, remembering the alley._

...Real world 10:00AM…

Atara opened her eyes to see that the sun had already risen and its light was flooding into her hospital room. She reached her hand up, and rubbed her neck before she heard someone clear his throat beside her bed. She snapped out of her trance and turned to face a confused Assai.

The light was highlighting his blonde hair (by the way his hair is not completely blonde it has streaks of light brown in it) and blinding Atara. Her eyes focused to the light and she looked over to her right to find that she had a vase of roses. One of them was red and had "From: Assai" written on its heart-shaped tag. Atara smiled. Then she asked while pointing at the other red one, "Who's that one from?" "I don't know," Assai said shrugging. Atara tried to think of someone who'd give her a red rose other than Assai but no one came to mind.

She took her focus off of the mystery rose and focused on Assai. When she looked at him, his eyes were cast downward as if in shame. "I should've told you," Atara said, knowing what was wrong immediately. Assai did not respond.

"I told him when it happened the first time," Atara said remembering the events that her dream had brought back to her mind. "Told who? What's it? First time?" Assai asked. (Three questions in one sentence from a nine-word sentence, that's a new record I think.) "When I was only six years old, I transformed like yesterday. I had gotten really angry at someone who was teasing me and I ended up killing him. When I changed back, I ran. I went to a place where I could hide in the shadows and cry away from that stupid nanny in my house. What I didn't know was that I was being followed by a certain onyx-eyed boy. He came up to me where I was sitting beside a tree crying. It was Sasuke. He asked me what'd happened and I was so scared that I told him. He wasn't afraid of me either. He helped me get back to my house so that I could get out of the bloody clothes and then I told him that he could tell no one about it. He promised not to, and I believe that he didn't seeing everyone's shocked expressions."

Atara's thoughts drifted back to the rose as she finished her story. She asked herself, _Sasuke? Nah, it couldn't be. He's not the type to chase after girls anyways._

"You told Sasuke? Why didn't you tell me? And why did he lie when I asked him what you'd turned into?"

"Yes I told Sasuke. I was young and I didn't want to ruin my friendship with you. He didn't know what I looked like when I changed nor does he fully understand it. He's the same as you as far as that goes." "Oh. By the way, if you feel better there's a prom thingy for genins coming up after they finish the preliminaries. It's in a week. You wanna go?"

"I guess if I get better. Is it formal?" "Yeah, so put on your prettiest kimono if you're coming." Atara smiled. "Okay, I guess I can for you." Assai smiled back and came closer to give Atara a gentle kiss on her lips before leaving her to get some rest.

Atara thought about this thing. What if I have to miss my training for it? I don't want to but this would be my first real date with Assai. I guess I won't miss much and besides I learn quickly. No problem.

End: Right so I stopped it there because well its seven MS Word pages and that's pretty long for one chapter. Okay another note is that, in her dream she had just turned seven so this was before??? Sasuke's family died right? Well someone told me that, if it's incorrect oh well plz correct me if so. Anyways R&R. need feedback (positive plz, mostly voting) The need for voting is increasing, considering what Assai said in this chapter.

Neko Pairing:

Naruto0

Rock Lee1

Shikamaru0

Neji1

Kiba0

Shino0

PLEASE vote for Neko pairing.


	15. Chapter 15, Prelim Close Thank God!

Lone Wolf

**Intro:** This is the rest of the preliminaries. I'm not going to change anything that happened in the manga, so Sasuke, Naruto, Neji, Gaara, Kankuro, and Temari still win. I've made three OC's (well one's dead but yeah) that will be fighting the team (Atara, Assai, and Neko) Atara's fight is over, so all that I'm going to do is say who they go after and then describe their battles.

**Disclaimer:** DO NOT OWN NARUTO. Do own my own OC's: the team, Kaji, Tenshi, newly introduced: Jadoku and Irihi, Raion, and Akabara (this chapter)

**Chapter 15****, The Rest of the Preliminaries**

Assai had returned from his visit with Atara in time to see Sasuke's battle. He watched silently as he won the fight and then looked up at the board to see who was next while Sasuke left with Kakashi (plz pervs no nasty thoughts). The board read, "Taiyou Neko VS. Akabara"

Neko jumped up in excitement. "Yay! My turn!" "Good luck Neko," Assai called to her as she jumped over the rail and into the arena to face her opponent.

She was a red headed girl with a crooked spiky ponytail and short bangs on both sides of her face. Her sleeveless shirt was dark red with a bright orange sun design on it and her skirt (shorts underneath think Sakura's dress) had a split on the sides and was a burgundy color. She wielded two large kunai and had more normal sized ones within her holster.

She smirked at Neko. "That was your teammate that killed mine, right? I won't kill you but I will win." Neko smirked back, "Like you could kill me? Besides you can't win because I'm going to."

Akabara laughed at this, before starting, "Like a girly girl like you could—." Obviously she'd underestimated Neko because she'd heard the referee say begin but Akabara hadn't due to her talking.

Therefore she was caught off guard when Neko attacked her from behind with a swarm of kunai. Akabara managed to dodge a few of them only suffering minor wounds from the ones she didn't. Neko didn't stop there as she threw burning balls of fire at the other red-head. One of the three managed to hit her in the stomach stunning her. This was perfect.

Neko jumped into the air doing hand seals before she said, "Fire Lion Jutsu!" Once again the flames came from the ground and encircled her body before releasing and turning into a lioness and charging the red-headed girl who was on the ground. The lion charged into the girl who raised her crossed arms to her face as she was hit directly.

When the lion hit her it caused a big explosion of smoke and Akabara took that opportunity to get behind the waiting Neko and throw her giant kunai at her. The kunai went straight through her and Neko disappeared in a puff of smoke.

_Damn, it was a clone_, Akabara thought. The next thing she knew there was one Neko charging at her with three kunai on each hand. She threw one hand and Akabara dodged two of them and the second set of kunai managed to get two hits on Akabara's arms.

Her breathing was heavier now as she began to exhaust due to the searing pain in her arms. She chucked another giant kunai and some smaller ones at Neko. Neko didn't move as if frozen in fear and the kunai struck her in the stomach.

Akabara smiled, but it was washed away when the Neko standing in front of her poofed away. _Fuck another clone!_ Her thoughts were cut short as she felt something stab into her back just below her shoulders. She froze due to the pain and another pierced her flesh just below the first. It was followed by a third just below the second.

Akabara fell face first onto the ground unconscious, blood running out of her wounds. The referee took one look at her and said, "Match over! The winner is Taiyou Neko!" Assai, who was in the stands, cheered her, "Good job Neko!"

She smiled warmly up at him before she teleported herself to the sit on the rail Itachi-style (like in Sasuke's flashback during the fight with Naruto where it showed him on top of the telephone pole) right next to him.

"Okay, you won but you don't have to show off, Neko," he said before turning his attention back to the board.

…After all battles but Gaara/Lee…

Assai had watched Naruto fight Kiba and win, Sakura and Ino tie, some other people win and others lose, like Tenten. He was about to fall asleep from the boredom of waiting for his match. But then he looked at the only three people that hadn't fought yet.

They were Gaara of the Sand, Lee, the guy in ugly green spandex, and another guy who wore the leaf forehead protector but Assai didn't recognize him. He thought that he was probably on the team with the girl Atara had killed and Akabara, Neko's opponent. The sand guy was scary, Lee creeped him out, and the other dude kind of reminded him of Sasuke, emo. He looked back at the board to see the names "Raion VS. Assai" appears from the black screen.

He teleported himself to stand in the center of the arena, and seconds later the emo-ish Leaf ninja with long golden-red hair (gold or blonde with red highlights) jumped down spinning with a sword in hand. The gust of wind blew Assai's golden locks back but he stood tall ready to face this new opponent. He smirked when he saw Assai. "Your teammate is the one that killed Irihi right? Well she always freaked me out anyways, that Irihi. She was kind of psychotic."

"Obviously she'd have to be to insult Atara. My girlfriend has a pretty bad temper," Assai replied coolly. "I see." The sickly referee looked between the two golden haired ninjas and said, "Whenever you're ready?" They both stared each other down for a second before Raion charged Assai with incredible speed ramming him into the wall using his shoulder.

"Hah, what a wimp," he sneered. "Yes, you are," Assai said as he brought his knee up swiftly to meet Raion's private areas from underneath. Raion crouched down holding himself and holding back tears while Assai landed two or three punches in his stomach. Finally the victim of the onslaught got back to his senses and he jumped away from Assai backwards.

"Watch this you blonde-headed loser!" he said spinning around with the short sword extended. Flames came shooting out as a long chain and flew toward Assai. He remained calm as he gathered up a large amount of chakra to his hands. When the flames were closing in on him, he shot the chakra out at them and deflected the center wall of flames back to the "unsuspecting" Raion. "Not impressed," Assai said with a look of satisfaction on his face.

"Haha, nor am I," Raion said as he knocked Assai in the back of the head with his sword which had turned into a club. Assai fell to the ground face-first and the referee waited a while to see if he'd get up. When he didn't he said, "Match over! Winner Raion!"

The medical team came and took Assai away on a stretcher, while Neko watched from above. _That guy that beat Assai was fast…and strong. I've never been able to come close to matching him and now this guy.._, she thought. She noticed that she had her hand up to her heart in a very girlish way and when she looked to her left, the red-headed sand Sib was looking at her funny. Judging by the ripples in his flesh, if he had eyebrows one of them would have been raised and the other lowered in a skeptical look.

Neko blushed but then the sand guy disappeared and Rock Lee jumped down from his place on her opposite side. She looked at the board which read: "Gaara VS. Rock Lee" and gasped.

…In Atara's Hospital Room…

The black haired girl was lying down in bed still and staring at the ceiling. _ I wonder how Assai's fight went_, she thought as she looked at the time. _They should be almost finished by now. _Some more people had visited her earlier and put more flowers in her vase. When she looked at all the yellow ones, she smiled. The crazy-minded girl never knew she had this many friends. Assai's red rose had already started to look as if it was dying.

Atara looked at it and smiled. When she looked at the other red rose that was still perfectly radiant and beautiful she wondered, _Who gave me this one?_ She looked around to see if maybe they'd left a note or something that would point to who her secret admirer was but she saw nothing. She sat up in her bed and then walked over to the table where the vase was. She saw something almost nonexistent and invisible, something so thin that only her eyes could have picked it up. She reached out and grabbed the thin fiber off of the desk and held it up to her eyes.

_A black hair?_ She asked herself pulling one of hers out. She compared the length but the hair she'd found was way too short to have been hers. She shrugged and dropped the hairs. It could have been anyone, one of the nurses or someone. Her clothes were folded neatly on a chair across from her bed and feeling better she went and changed into them.

Once she'd changed, she grabbed her sheathed daggers, opened the window, and jumped out. She landed nimbly on her feet on the ground and headed for her house. It only took minutes for her to get back home and she went in and made her some breakfast. She called Yabun who was upstairs and they left the house. After she'd done that, she started to make her way out of Konoha so she could train in peace with her partner.

…Outside Gates…

She'd just jumped off of the walls of Konoha along with Yabun and they both landed as cats do in the top of a tall tree. As they jumped down from the trees, Atara's red eyes flashed and she turned her head to the left while drawing a kunai and sending it across to her left, her eyes following it. She and Yabun heard someone curse, and then Atara's green haired sensei stepped out of the bushes.

He was holding the kunai in his right hand and blood was dripping down slowly. Atara saw it and her lip twitched a bit. Before Jadoku could notice, her face had once again become an emotionless void of peachiness. (her skin color in case you didn't get it) He looked at her sideways, his eyes squinted suspiciously. "You can't possibly be well already?" he said.

"Yes, it is a surprise that you are," Atara replied staring at his hand which now showed neither blood nor a cut. "Oh, yeah. Long story and I don't feel like explaining."

"Whatever, are we going to train or what?" Atara asked with a bitter tone to her voice.

"Show me what you got!" Jadoku replied taking a fighting stance.

**End: Right so I'm just tired of making ppl wait so I'm gonna go ahead and put this chapter up now. I have someone threatening me with pencil stabs if I don't hurry up. YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE!!! It couldn't be B—'someone's hand covers mouth' oh well here ya go! And since this person won't make his own account he isn't reviewing. 'sticks out tongue at person who covered mouth' I'm posting his vote ne ways.**

Neko Pairing:

Naruto0

Rock Lee1

Shikamaru0

Neji2

Kiba0

Shino0

PLEASE vote for Neko pairing.


	16. Chapter 16, Preparations

Night Walker

**Night Walker**

**Disclaimer: DO NOT OWN NARUTO. My only OCs are Yoru, Niiro, and the newly-named, Mei. A fact about her is that she really is **_**with**_** Itachi. She looks like an Uchiha because Itachi turned her into a werewolf, giving her the red eyes but she already had the hair.**

**Intro: I don't feel like making you guys wait so I'll just get right to the chapter.**

**Names for Itachi's wife:**

**Tori**- means "bird" _Votes: 1_

**Mei**- means "dark" _Votes: 4_

"**Mei" is the winner and I would like to thank everyone for voting. Cyber cookies for all!**

_**Chapter 16**_

…Sasuke's POV…

As soon as I heard the howl, I knew that Itachi and the others had caught up. When I looked ahead, I could see the dark shadow of two werewolves. Their red eyes glowed in the darkness of the light. Itachi's wolfish voice was directed to the other werewolf as he said, "There they are, Mei."

The female turned toward us and narrowed her eyes. Itachi looked at us and raised his lip in a wolfish smirk showing off his white fangs. "How nice it is to see you again. We found your friends," he said addressing the two shapes lying on the ground next to them.

Sakura gasped and Naruto let out a malicious growl when he saw Hinata's unconscious form lying on top of Gaara's equally unconscious form.

"I think I can walk Sasuke. Just take care of him," Yoru whispered to me and I nodded my head and set her down on the ground. Sakura turned toward her immediately and nodded to me and I started my transformation once more as she knelt down by Yoru and started to relieve some of the pain from her ankle.

From there on, all that I could see was Itachi's laughter-filled eyes as I thrust myself into the battle. Naruto was fighting the female werewolf and everyone else had disappeared.

"_Just take care of him."_ Yoru's words echoed in my head as I remembered all of the things that Itachi had put both Yoru and I through. I fought my hardest but it just wasn't enough. I couldn't seem to get an edge on Itachi.

…Yoru's POV…

Now that all of the pain had dissipated from my ankle I stood up and nodded my head to Sakura who immediately turned her attention to Gaara and Hinata. "We have to get them away from the battling," she said to me and I nodded my head. I concentrated on my transformation as hard as I could and eventually I felt the power consume me as it started.

My eyes became violent green in color and my pupils had turned to slits. My canine teeth had grown long and sharp, and I had grown long razor-sharp claws. Brown satin wings and a tail sprouted from my back and I looked over to Sakura before taking off in flight and heading over to the dark shapes. I swooped down and picked up Hinata in my arms, careful not to injure her with my claws, and then took her back to Sakura.

I then took off again and was headed to the other shape, but before I could make it to Gaara, I was hit in the side by a large body. I lost control of my flight and crashed into the ground. "I don't think so, pretty girl," Itachi said with spite.

"Get away from him!" I exclaimed when I saw Itachi going towards Gaara's limp body. Without a second thought, I charged at him with my teeth bared and sunk them into Itachi's tough flesh. He let out a howl of pain as he threw me off of his back but I had done it.

His blood dripped from my mouth and I couldn't help but give him an evil smile. His eyes turned wide as the realization of my intentions hit him. Acting like a drug, his blood entered my system and filled me with immeasurable power. All of the pains from before completely vanished and I rose to my feet slowly and I asked, "Want a piece of me now?"

Returning to his normal state as best as he could with all of the power that was surging off of me, he said, "I'll still kill you. A little bit of power doesn't scare me!" He jumped toward me but I met him in the air with claws outstretched and clawed his face and then, using my wings to hold him, I kicked him and released at the same time causing him to fly through the air. He hit a tree with a thud and blood started pouring from his body. Just the sight of it triggered my instincts and I found myself losing control as I neared his unmoving body.

…Sasuke's POV…

"Sasuke!" Sakura exclaimed and I saw her point to Yoru who had transformed and was moving toward Itachi's body. I looked back at Sakura in confusion. Who cares if she kills him? "Look!" she said and upon closer inspection I could see that a pool of Itachi's blood was gathering around him. Looking back at Yoru, I noticed that there was a lot of blood on her mouth. Putting two and two together, I ran towards Yoru and just as she got two feet from Itachi's body, I tackled her to the ground.

She struggled underneath me for a while and tried to push me off but I held her down with my weight which was almost not enough to control her and that unmatched power that she'd gotten from drinking Itachi's blood.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Mei helping Itachi up and they soon disappeared in a flash of black fur. "Yoru!" I shouted and she stopped struggling and opened her eyes to reveal her once-again baby blue orbs. I changed back into my human form as she did and after a while, she was back to normal.

"S-Sasuke what happened?" she asked in a scared voice. "D-Did I hurt you?"

"No, I'm okay," I said, trying to hide the scratches on my arms, but she saw them and exclaimed, "I'm so sorry!" before leaning into my chest and embracing me while crying softly to herself.

Everyone walked up to us, including the now awake Gaara and Hinata. Naruto had changed back into his human form. They stood in silence watching us sit there and listening to the low sobs of Yoru. Soon we heard voices from the woods and Naruto and Gaara turned swiftly towards the source of the sound.

"Yoru? Sasuke?" a female voice called.

"Naruto?" a familiar rugged male voice followed.

"It's Tsunade and Jiraiya," Sakura said making the boys relax.

And just as she finished saying that, the two said figures came out of the trees and walked at a brisk pace towards the group of teenagers. "What happened?" she asked when she saw us all in an exhausted state and Naruto and I with scratches and cuts all over.

"Itachi and another werewolf called Mei attacked us. That's what happened," I said.

She looked over at Yoru and then at Sakura. "I heard all of the ruckus and I figured that they were after Yoru. Was I right?"

Sakura nodded her head and said, "Yes, Itachi was leading a mob of the villagers toward Yoru's house. When we found out, we went to warn them and we escaped Konoha but Itachi and this other werewolf kept following us and then they attacked."

"I warned her that this would happen. Yoru probably shouldn't return to Konoha after this," Tsunade said with a grave expression.

"Then none of us will," Sakura replied and everyone nodded their heads. Yoru, who had been watching the whole thing, looked at her friends and smiled.

…Four Hours Later…

We'd made it to the safe house and managed to get a bit of sleep, but sleep came hard for me. Even with Yoru in my arms, I couldn't seem to fall asleep no matter what I did. Something was bothering me and I knew exactly what it was: Itachi. After what had happened tonight, I couldn't stop thinking and worrying that he wasn't finished just yet. I kept looking to make sure that no one was outside watching us. I was wary of every little sound and every movement, and for what, that sick bastard that killed my parents, my girlfriend's parents, and tried to kill us.

"Sasuke…are you okay?" Yoru's small voice asked me as she looked up at me through half-closed eyes.

"Yeah, how long have you been awake?"

"Long enough to tell that you're worried about something," she said waking up a little bit more but keeping her voice at a whisper so as not to wake the others. "What is it?" she asked looking at me with serious caring eyes.

Why should I hide my fears from her? Was I really too proud to share my fears with the woman I loved? No, of course not. "I'm worried about Itachi. What if he comes back?" I answered and she looked down.

…Yoru's POV…

I hated to hear the mention of Itachi and the fact that Sasuke was worried because of what had happened tonight. I felt really bad about what I had done to him. The scratches on his arm were just a reminder of how I'd let myself, even made myself lose control.

I knew what would happen from drinking werewolf blood and that was why I did it, but I was trying to defeat Itachi for good. I didn't plan on Sasuke interfering and getting hurt because of me. I couldn't stand hurting him because I loved him so much and it just made me angry at myself because he never blamed me for it. It was never my fault in his eyes but I felt differently. It was my fault, if not last time because I was clueless, it was this time because I'd drank the blood on purpose. And after I'd had a taste, I just kept on wanting more. (a/n Something about those Uchihas)

"If he comes back, we'll handle him," I finally said in response to Sasuke's question.

"No Yoru. I don't want you to get hurt. I'll fight him," he replied looking at me with concern in his eyes.

"I won't get hurt, silly. I can take care of myself. Just…next time, I won't do what I did this time," I replied shaking my head with guilt written all over my face.

"You did that on purpose?!" Sasuke exclaimed while still trying to hold to his whisper. I could see that he looked mad and I was starting to regret telling him.

"I'm really sorry Sasuke, but…" I looked over at Gaara who was sleeping on a couch with Sakura. "I had to save Gaara. He was going to kill him. I had no choice," I said with dignity.

"But you knew what would happen if you did!" he said, sitting up to look at me.

I sat up also and looked him square in the eyes. "I know that, Sasuke. I just…didn't expect for it to turn south like it did. The truth is…I'm tired of having Itachi's face plague my dreams at night; I'm tired of looking around every corner and expecting him to come after me. I wanted to get rid of him, and the only way I could do that is if I use part of him to defeat him if that makes any sense." Lowering my voice down to a whisper again, I said, "I knew that you were losing, and I didn't want to see you get defeated by him again."

Some of the anger seemed to fade from Sasuke's face as he realized my good intentions. "I can handle Itachi, Yoru. You don't need to worry about him."

"Have you forgotten? He killed my parents too, all of them: my real mom and dad, and Kuro. I never even had the chance to know my real parents because he ruined my life before I could talk. I wasn't able to say goodbye to my parents as they were each taken away from me. I want to kill him just as much as you do," I said and by the time I was finished, I had tears in my eyes.

I wondered what they looked like, if they were nice or grumpy, if they were friendly or anti-social. It didn't matter which one they were as long as I knew. Then I could truly know if I would have loved them. But not knowing was the worst part of not having my parents. I could have had a great life with them, living in a palace knowing of my vampire heritage my whole life, making wiser decisions than I have made because of my lack of knowledge. No one would have ever found out about me being a vampire because I would have known to conceal my identity from them. Just the thought of what I was missing was enough to make me break down.

Soon after I'd started crying, Sasuke's strong arms wrapped around me and I leaned into his embrace and let everything out. All of the emotions that I'd left hidden in me for so long, there was a tear for each one and Sasuke let me cry all of those tears on his shoulder.

…Sakura's POV…

I had been watching them for quite some time and listened to their small argument which had ended in Yoru's crying. I was kind of angry at Sasuke for losing control of himself. How could he be angry at her? He should have known that Yoru didn't mean any harm by her actions. I was happy that she had bitten Itachi. He could have killed Gaara if she wouldn't have done something.

But Yoru could handle Sasuke, and besides it wasn't my place to interfere…no matter how much I wanted to.

Soon Yoru stopped crying, Sasuke gave her a kiss, and they went back to sleep. Sleep soon came to me as well and it was another two hours before I woke back up.

When I woke up, Yoru and Sasuke were gone but everyone else was asleep. I started to move but found that Gaara's arm had me in a hold by my stomach. I'd have to wake him up to, and for what? So that I could go find Yoru and Sasuke? _Well maybe I should wake him for a more pleasant reason,_ I thought to myself and my inner snickered and rubbed her hands together evilly.

I put my hand gently on his face which was rested in the crook of my neck and I brushed his red locks out of his face. His eyes opened half way, he let out a groan of frustration and then closed his eyes again, giving me a nip on my neck. _Yeah, he is not a morning person_, I thought and my inner nodded her head.

…Sasuke's POV…

Yoru and I had woken up about fifteen minutes ago and she decided that she wanted to go outside for some fresh air. The dew was just starting to melt off of the leaves and everything seemed so clean. Yoru walked beside me, holding my hand and laying her head on my arm as she walked.

I felt kind of ashamed for getting angry at her now that I knew why she'd took the actions that she had. _ I should have known that all along_, I thought.

_**Yeah you should've**_, my conscience chided me.

"Yoru, I'm sorry for being angry with you," I said and we stopped walking.

"It's okay, now come on, let's not talk about all of that negative stuff and just enjoy the morning," she said with a bright smile as she reached up and kissed me tenderly. Not wanting her to stop, I kissed her back and walked forward until she was backed up against a tree. "Sasuke..," she started but I cut her off by kissing her even more passionately. She wrapped her arms around my neck and returned my kisses. Suddenly she stopped and pulled a knife from my pocket and threw it at an object behind me.

Someone cursed as the knife disappeared into the bushes, and I took my hands off of Yoru's waist.

I turned to face whatever it was that had interrupted us, glaring at a spot in the trees where a tall man with black hair appeared with his hands in the air soon arrived. On his left wrist there was a small cut where the blade had caught him.

"Who are you?" I asked with suspicion in his voice as I stood halfway in front of Yoru.

"I am Rokku, and I'm sorry to bother you two. Lady Hokousha, Sasuke I presume?" he said addressing Yoru and then giving me a questioning glance. His features were marred with both strength and an urgency that really worried me. I nodded my head, wanting him to get to the point fast. "Niiro has been injured and our clan is falling victim to corruption. You are the only hope we have left. You must hurry, my lady!"

I saw Yoru gulp at the sudden change of plans. She'd thought that she had at least another four years before she would have to take charge and this sudden command caught her off guard. "Can't someone else do it?" I asked, worried for Yoru's sake. She didn't even know anyone in her clan and now they wanted her to cheer them up? That didn't make any sense.

"No, she's the only one that can do it," Rokku said with agitation in his voice. "She is our true leader anyways. Niiro was just a temporary replacement until we could get her to return—."

"And until she was of age!" I interrupted. "She doesn't even know any of your people! How can you expect her to prove to them now that she can lead them if she hasn't even had time to get to know them?!"

"She has no choice, Mr. Uchiha, and besides, matters of the vampire clan are none of your business, werewolf!" he said with hate in his eyes toward me, showing his fangs in an attempt to scare me. I showed him my own now elongated fangs, ready for a battle.

"Stop it!" Yoru exclaimed and Rokku backed down a bit but I still glared at him. "You too!" she said to me before continuing. "If my clan needs me, then I will go."

I looked at her and the determination in her eyes was enough to convince me to leave the matter alone. She was brave, and I could only hope that she wasn't _too_ brave. At about that time, Naruto appeared. "We heard all of the yelling and de--," Naruto started but cut off his words abruptly when he noticed Rokku.

His eyes flashed suspiciously at the stranger and he let out a low growl. "It's okay Naruto," Yoru said making him calm down.

Soon Hinata, Sakura, and Gaara showed up and had equal reactions to Rokku. Yoru explained yet again that he was a friend not a foe, although I still didn't like him very much.

After a few minutes, we packed our things and we were off. With Rokku in the lead, we headed off to the hidden location of the vampire clan's headquarters.

**End: Well, I'm stopping here and if you're confused about it, well I am too just for the record. She's only fourteen Rokku, not eighteen! Idiot! Oh wait, I made him that way, hehe. Sorry Rokku 'pats his head apologetically'. I needed to do something, they couldn't just stay out in the wilderness forever could I? Well, I could but that would be boring and if you want to know how Niiro got injured, well I tell you…in the next chapter. Don't miss it! Btw, this story should be coming to a close soon. There will probably be two more chapters and then the epilogue. I know you might not want it to end but it's getting close and besides the sequel will probably come out the day that the last chapter of this one is posted. Plz read it! The title is "Flower of the Lion."**


	17. Chapter 17, Train For Perfection

Lone Wolf

**Lone Wolf**

**Intro: **Will Atara finally master her powers? This chapter will be over the course of a couple days.

**Disclaimer:** You people already know. Don't own Naruto…yada, yada, yada.

**Train for Perfection****, Chapter 17**

_Pain seared through Atara's body as a demonic voice whispered in her ears cruel words that distorted her mind. __**"I can give you power beyond what Jadoku can give you. Release me and I will show you what true power is and teach you to tame your inner beast."**_

"_How? How can you do that? I can't even do that!" Atara exclaimed as the demonic presence seemed to tighten around her and threatened to squeeze the life out of her body._

"_**Loose your emotions completely, and the change will become second nature to you. I promise..,"**__ the voice said as it finally released her from its snake-like grip and disappeared into the darkness of her mind. It completely left Atara's mind soon to go back to its proper place: where that was, she didn't know._

Atara woke up in a cold sweat. Assai was still asleep beside her, holding her in his arms. _I have to defeat my father, and the only way is to transform_, she thought to herself as she looked at the blonde's peaceful face. The voice of that demon reentered her mind and she thought of that one sentence. _**"Loose your emotions completely, and the change will become second nature to you."**_

_If I give up Assai, can I transform then?_ She thought with a grave look cast towards her lover. She really did love Assai and wanted the best for their relationship but would she be willing to give him up for their wellbeing. If she didn't kill her father soon, he would take away from her all of her friends and the ones she truly cared about. Deciding to postpone that question for later, she slipped free from Assai's grasp and went upstairs to get dressed.

Checking to make sure that Assai was still asleep, she climbed out the window of her bedroom and jumped down to the ground, heading for her meeting spot with her sensei.

Once she'd crossed the border to the forest outside Konoha's walls, she came to their rendezvous. Looking around, she found that Jadoku was nowhere to be seen in the grassy clearing. Summoning Yabun, she asked if he could sense her sensei. _"Do you smell him?"_ she asked silently.

"_**No, but there is another smell. It's a female, though I'm not sure who it is,"**_ he replied in her thoughts.

Before Atara could react to Yabun's words the figure of a girl appeared out of nowhere in a shroud of darkness. As she came into view, Atara thought she'd heard a sound like a snake hissing. Taking it for a hallucination, she looked the girl over.

Her hair was red with different shades of green highlights and her eyes were a fierce dark blue color. She had dark tattoos on her face, snake-like fangs, plated armor with snake fangs on the stomach area, and…_wait, is that a tail?_ Atara thought all of a sudden.

She heard the snake-like noises again but this time it sounded like laughing. _Okay, I'm not hallucinating. Maybe this is still just a dream_, she thought. She pinched herself and concluded, _Nope, this isn't a dream because that really hurt._

"Who are you?" Atara asked flashing her red eyes at the girl who seemed unaffected.

"Your worst nightmare," the girl replied simply as she drew her katana. Her eyes turned bright green and her pupils became slits.

"If that is how you wish for us to introduce ourselves, then fine," Atara said with a cool smile as she drew her daggers swiftly.

Without another word, the two girls engaged in battle while a satisfied sensei watched from the shadows. Atara and the other girl were evenly matched in Taijutsu; blocking each others' swift kicks and swipes, and never losing track of the other.

Atara's eyes flashed again but this time, she was quite annoyed. Focusing her energy into all parts of her body, she felt the beast inside of her stir but it stopped almost immediately. _Damn it, why won't it work?_ She cursed to herself.

"_**Focus harder. Lose your emotionsss..," **_that snake-like voice whispered in her mind. She could almost feel his presence pressed up against her, with hot breath hitting her neck and striking fear into her heart.

Forgetting her annoyance and frustration of the moment, Atara concentrated all of her energy into her transformation. She felt the beast stir again and soon it consumed her thoughts. Her wings sprouted out of her shoulder blades, her canine teeth elongated, and her fingernails grew long and sharp. Her hair flowed around her eerily in a mass of black strands.

"Now it's over," she said staring down her opponent, who had a surprising look of satisfaction on her face. Pumping her own signature chakra into her daggers she flew at the girl, whose sword now glowed green. Just as the two weapons were about to make contact an invisible barrier appeared and blasted the two girls back away from each other.

"Okay, we're not trying to destroy the village, Kira, Atara," Jadoku's voice said before said green-haired ninja appeared from the bushes with his hand out. Obviously, he'd used some sort of jutsu to create that barrier.

"Good morning, sensei. You know her?" Atara hissed out looking at Kira who stared back at her.

"This is my daughter, Kira. She's your new training partner," Jadoku replied. He and Kira stood next to each other and Atara could see the similarities. The green hair, eye and nose shape, and even the body build of the two were very similar, almost identical.

"What?!" Atara exclaimed.

"Well, I figured she'd be a better match for you than I. She's more on you level," Jadoku said addressing the fact that he was on the special jounin level and Kira at the chuunin level.

"How is that supposed to help me?" Atara asked.

"Well, you managed to fuel your transformation for the first time with just your thoughts. That's progress. If you master the stage 2 form, I might show you the stage 3 form. That will make you be that much closer to defeating your father."

"But why do I have to train with her?" Atara asked getting annoyed with her arrogant sensei.

"Because, she can make you transform by pushing your body's limits. She's much better at that than I am, and she is a natural-born venom user. She can teach you a lot of techniques that I can't."

"Fine," Atara sulked before beginning her training for the day.

…With Assai…

He woke up and Atara was gone. Letting out a sigh, he got up and went to his own house. Before he could make it, a tired-looking redhead came running up to him. Neko said, "Kaji wants us to meet up with him for training."

"Okay," Assai replied before he and Neko went off to their team's training grounds.

…With Atara…

Jadoku had given up on getting Atara to transform again so he decided to teach her some techniques. She was currently being taught how to make Venom Shuriken, an attack that Jadoku himself had made.

By the time she'd learned the technique, it was getting dark and Jadoku dismissed her before he and Kira disappeared into the forest and she went home to go to bed. Surprisingly, Assai didn't visit today so he must have had a hard day also. With her thoughts set on nothing but her training, she went to sleep hoping that that voice would visit again to give her some guidance.

"_Are you here?" Atara called out into the darkness of her mind._

"_**So, what is it that you want from me?"**__ the voice asked and Atara could feel the eerie presence as if he was standing behind her._

"_You helped me today. Teach me to master my powers," Atara answered and she could hear the snake-like breathing and feel it as hot air hit her neck._

"_**That sounded like a command to me. You've got guts,"**__ the voice replied as his scaly tail wrapped around her legs and up to her waist._

"_Just teach me, please. And don't think you can scare me so easily," she replied as she made her chakra go down into her lower body and heat up. There was a hissing sound and the tail released Atara._

"_**You're strong, Atara. I suppose I could train you.."**__ the voice replied as the presence shifted and despite the darkness, she could tell that he was standing in front of her. And then, he opened his eyes and looked at her and Atara gasped. They were black but with blood red irises and slit pupils._

"_**Scared already?"**__ he asked before getting closer and hissing out, __**"Don't show fear in the face of your enemies."**_

"_You're not my enemy though."_

"_**You will treat me as if I am. Otherwise, you'll never master your powers."**_

"_Okay. May I inquire as to what your name is?" Atara asked looking at her newest teacher without fear._

"_**My name is Cobra,"**__ he replied. __**"Now let us begin your training,"**__ He added before spinning around and the setting changed to a darkened wilderness. Lightning came down from the clouds and thunder rumbled through the valley. _

_Now she could see that Cobra was part man and part snake. He had the body of a man but his features were marred so that they looked like a snake with dark shadows around his eyes, sharp fangs, and spiky dark green-black hair. He was dressed in a cape with a big, wide neck that went down to his ankles. Underneath it, he wore a snake-scale patterned armor vest and cargo pants with a thick belt around his waist that was made completely out of metal. Attached to his belt and also on his right thigh was a kunai holster. On his back he had a large metal sheath with a sword in it. The hilt(handle) was black and red with the center being a blood red eye with a slit pupil. His arms were big and bulky with fully toned muscles and rippling veins. He definitely would be a really scary man to meet on an evening stroll._

_After she'd completely taken in ­­­­­­­­Cobra's appearance­­­­­­­­­­­­, they began to train._

The next morning she woke up with scratches on her arms and one big cut on her stomach. It had already healed up but it still hurt. When she went to get out of bed, she winced at the pain.

_I guess my dream was more real than I thought_, Atara thought as she got dressed.

Her training with Jadoku began with yet another spar with Kira followed by more new jutsus to learn. They were simple and relatively easy too. Of course, her training the night before was helping, too. By the end of the day, she couldn't wait to go to sleep and train with Cobra. She had learned how to finally control her inner demon to some extent. He'd said she was close to mastering the stage two form. However, the tone in his voice said that stage two was just the beginning.

That night, when she went to sleep, she called out to Cobra. _He appeared before her in the full figure, not trying to hide himself at all. "Back again?" he asked in his hissing voice._

"_I'm ready to perfect my transformation," I said hopefully. _

_He gave me a sinister glare. "You are nowhere near perfection…" he hissed out._

"_But you said—."_

"_I said you had almost mastered stage two. There are two more stages that you haven't heard of yet. The third stage requires the use of chakra. You must find a way to pump chakra through your entire body in order to fuel the transformation."_

"_So, can I use chakra to use the second stage?" I asked, looking at him with curiosity._

"_You can use it to fuel the transformation, but it doesn't drain you. With the third and fourth forms, you become stronger and faster but they drain your chakra. I doubt you could last ten minutes in the fourth form right now. But that's why I'm here. Jadoku will not teach you the extremities of your strengths because he is afraid of what could happen, but I…I don't know the meaning of fear. I will teach you, with time, how to master the third form. I don't believe we'll have time for the fourth before the Chuunin exams so you'll have to make do with what I give you," he explained._

_Soon we started my training. He was teaching me the type of chakra control that was required to use the third form. With the fast-learner that I was, I soon caught on and was practicing it myself. Soon, I felt the transformation begin. _

_My chakra flowed violently through my entire body and I could feel the amounts of power I was giving off, but I tried to hold onto as much of my chakra as possible. I began to feel as bones grew from my shoulder blades sticking out and turning into black velvety wings with a jagged fringe. They were much larger and didn't contain the bones in the middle like the other form. That made them more flexible too. I folded them over in front of my body as my fingernails became stronger and thicker. They were now claws that stretched to lengths of two and a half inches and were curved slightly toward the end. A long whip-like tail grew out of my pelvis and waved in the air as a long sharp blade grew on the end. It was shaped like a scythe which made it even scarier. _

_When the transformation had obviously ended, I opened my wings swiftly to find Cobra staring back at me with violent red eyes. I glared at him, narrowing my eyes, signaling a challenge. He was already changing and soon he had turned to the third form also._

"_Do you feel the drain on your chakra?" he asked me before charging at me with a katana drawn. I drew my own daggers and blocked the onslaught of attacks but then found that he'd forged them in venom. I oozed from the hilt of the sword and onto my daggers. It was nearing my hands when I finally dropped them, stabbing them into the ground on both sides of me. "Now, the battle begins," he said stabbing his own blade into the ground._

_After about twenty minutes of exchanging blows with our tail blades or slashing at each other with our claws, we were both getting tired. In one last attack, we both came at each other with claws outstretched, but at the last minute I pulled back my hands and slashed at him with my tail. He was obviously thinking the same thing because his tail blade and mine met in the very center just below eye level._

"_I think you've perfected it..," he complimented as he stared into my fierce red eyes that were the same as his._

**End: Dun, dun, DUUNNN!! Wait, why'd I do that?...It wasn't a cliffie. Oh well, I just wanted to say "Dun, dun DUUNNN!" Hehe, I did it again. Review plz…that goes for anyone who reads this chapter…even you, Ethan!!**


	18. Chapter 18, The Demon's Power

Lone Wolf

**Lone Wolf**

**Intro: **Okay, this chapter was going to contain the celebration but because of a thought that came to mind in the middle of writing it, it no longer will. But you will learn who gave Atara the second red rose and that person's true feelings will come out although only the readers will know. Haha, Atara will still be clueless! I'm glad my no-review friend liked the last chapter, even though he won't make an account and review for me. Ugh! Men…

**Disclaimer:** You people already know. Don't own Naruto…yada, yada, yada.

**The Demon's Power****, Chapter 18**

Two days later, Atara woke up with a startling realization. _Today is the day of the dance. Oh my god! What should I do?_

_**Hard choice?**_ That dark voice taunted from the depths of her minds.

_Do you ever go away?_ Atara asked irritably.

_**Someone's not a morning person..,**_ he mumbled before shrinking back and eventually leaving her mind.

Ever since she'd started her training with Cobra, he had been spending more and more time in her mind, influencing her decisions. It was like having a babbling, controlling father standing over her shoulder. She'd avoided Assai two days in a row now since she'd "perfected" the third stage and her control over her powers.

Whenever she saw Assai or Neko, she turned around and hid from them because she was afraid of them getting in the way of her training. So when she heard someone knock on her door, she almost didn't answer it. But as it continued, a slow, calm rapping on the door, she got curious.

Getting her black silk robe on she tied it at the waist and walked down the stairs. When she got to the bottom of the stairs, the knocking stopped. She unlocked the door and then opened it a crack to see who it was. Staring back at her were Sasuke's onxy eyes. Though normally blank and void of emotions, he looked…concerned? She couldn't quite read the expression in his face since she was so used to there being none.

"What is it Sasuke?" she asked in a sleepy voice. She still hadn't quite recovered from all of the brutal training that she'd done in the past month and it showed.

Sasuke looked at her and smirked. "Somebody hasn't been getting enough sleep," he taunted.

Atara narrowed her tired eyes at him. Even though she was battered from her training, she still held her air of intimidation. "Tell me what you want, or I'm shutting the door," she said seriously. She'd probably go back to sleep.

"Well, I heard Neko and Assai whining about you ditching them and I decided to investigate," Sasuke said with a smirk at his terminology. "Whining"…oh, he was good.

"That so does not sound like something you would do," Atara said shaking her head. "Whatever, come inside," she added, opening the door some more.

_Is that a good idea? _Sasuke thought to himself. _I mean,…I probably shouldn't…_

_**You know you want to**_, the devil on his left shoulder said, rubbing his hands together.

_**No, Sasuke! Don't do it! It is not holy to do such a thing! **_The angel on the right shoulder proclaimed. Sasuke did a double take on that one. It was Naruto.

_Naruto, how'd you get here?_ Sasuke inquired.

_**Hehe, nevermind me. BTW, Atara's waiting**_, the Naruto angel said before poofing away. The Sasuke devil poofed away also. Sasuke looked up to see Atara staring at him with a peculiar expression on her face.

He rubbed the back of his head in a very Naruto-like manner before walking into Atara's house. She closed the door behind him as he went and sat on her couch. When he turned to face her, his eyes grew wide and he gulped audibly.

Her choice of pajamas was a little silk red top that showed her stomach and a pair of black booty shorts. Even though she wore her robe, it failed to cover her cleavage and long, pale legs. Although her form was small, Sasuke could see her muscle tone in her legs. If he screwed up and got on her bad side, she could seriously hurt him.

She let out an annoyed sigh and he saw her put her hand on her hip, making him realize that he'd been caught staring at her. He blinked hard and looked up at her face. Satisfied, she walked over and sat on the couch beside him. "So, what's up?" she said in her fake curious voice.

"Well, I just wanted to know what was going on that you would ignore your friends. Assai seemed pretty upset," Sasuke answered, his voice actually sounded caring for once.

Atara sighed and looked down at her hands as she peeled red fingernail polish off of one of her nails. Sasuke didn't say anything else and she figured he was probably going to wait until she said something in response. Knowing Sasuke from their childhood days, she had a feeling that would be a long wait, so she tried to explain the best way she could.

"Okay, well…you know what happened at the preliminaries. In the Forest of Death, I was offered by a man named Jadoku to be his student. He promised that he could help me to defeat my father, and I realized just how important it was when he attacked. When I transformed in front of everyone, I was angry and my anger allowed the transformation to take place. Well, once I started training, I found that I couldn't initiate the transformation. Jadoku said it was because I had to lose my emotions. I tried to deny it, but I found that it was true. I had to stop feeling emotions and just seeing Assai stirs up deep emotions inside of me. And Neko does too, even though they're not the same emotions. In fact, you and Naruto and everyone else does, too. So, I just tried to seclude myself from everyone, and concentrate on my training," she explained while Sasuke sat listening in silence.

"I would say that you shouldn't exclude yourself in order to gain power, but that would make me a hypocrite. I've done the same thing to my friends. The thing is: Are you going to keep ignoring them even after you gain power? I know you Atara, and you can't stay secluded for too long. Hell, you wouldn't even tell Assai your secret because you liked his company," Sasuke said once she was finished.

Atara knew that he was right, even if she wouldn't admit it. She didn't like being alone, she never had. _**But you're not alone. You have me**_, the dark voice said suddenly.

_Go away, I don't feel like listening to you right now_, Atara thought back irritably.

_**What did you say to me?!**_ Cobra's angry voice yelled out so loud that Atara was sure Sasuke could hear it. Sudden pain filled all of her joints and Atara gasped before collapsing on top of Sasuke, her body shaking violently.

…Somewhere in Konoha…

Suddenly Jadoku felt that familiar emptiness in his mind. Lately, it had become more and more frequent as the demon left to some unknown place. But this time it was different. Jadoku could feel pain, but not his pain, Atara's pain. Suddenly his eyes flashed red and he entered the eyes of Atara. She was shaking all over her body and a dark, looming presence surrounded her. As it came face to face with her, Jadoku could see red eyes with snake-like slits for pupils. He gasped and the vision ended abruptly. _Atara's in trouble!_ He thought frantically before racing towards her home.

…With Atara and Sasuke…

Sasuke sat looking at Atara with shaky hands. What was he supposed to do? What was happening to her? Those were questions that Sasuke was incapable of answering and ignorance was one of Sasuke's pet peeves. He placed his hand on top of hers and hoped that the convulsions would stop. He thought about leaving to get someone but that would be out of the question. No way was he going to leave Atara alone in such a vulnerable state. "I won't leave you. I promise," he heard himself say. The words came freely and without thought but he knew that they were from his heart. His thoughts wandered to a time several years earlier that he'd made that very same promise that had meant so much more than she'd ever know.

_She was sitting under an oak tree, her raven-colored hair damp with tears and what looked like blood. She was still sniffling with her face down in her hands. I'd seen her before and I knew her from the academy. She didn't talk to anyone, though. He thought her name was Atara, or at least that's what it had sounded like when she introduced herself in a very quiet voice. He figured she was just shy, but now he thought she must be mentally disturbed. As he neared her, her sniffling stopped. "Who's there?" she asked in an ominously scary tone._

_How had she heard him? He had crept upon her so silently that no human being's ears could possibly have heard him. "Sasuke Uchiha," he replied, figuring that it was best for him to simply answer her questions rather than worry about how she'd heard him coming._

_As he walked over to face her, she tilted her head up towards him. His heart pounded when he looked into her eyes. Normally they were dark and black like his, but now they were scarlet red. He kept waiting to see the familiar black specks of the Sharingan. Immediately, visions of Itachi standing over his parents' bodies flooded back to him. He had to shake them off in order to talk to Atara. "What's wrong?" he asked, noticing her tilt her eyes back down to the ground in shame._

_Immediately, she started crying again. "I-I'm sorry. You don't have to tell me. I was just…concerned," he said quickly, slowing down before saying the last word._

_She stopped crying a bit before saying in a quiet and shaky voice, "I didn't mean to…couldn't control it…just happened." _

"_What happened?" he asked warily._

"_He's dead. I killed him. I—I'm scared," she said looking back up at Sasuke with frantic eyes._

_Sasuke just stared down at her with feelings of both shock and compassion for her innocence bubbling up inside of him. He couldn't think of anything to say so he just stood there waiting for her to say something else._

"_You should leave. I'm too dangerous for anyone to be around, so just leave," she said staring at the ground again._

_Suddenly his mouth formed words that his body had no control over. "No, I won't leave you. I promise," he said as he held out his hand towards her._

It was the same this time only now, the situation was much different. He couldn't hold her in his arms without feeling as though he was betraying Assai. He couldn't admit his feelings for her because her heart belonged to the blonde-haired ninja who was inferior to him in every way. Hatred for Assai burned inside of Sasuke. Why had she turned to Assai for comfort when he'd been there for her all along? Was it because he wasn't afraid to show his feelings or was she simply naïve to Sasuke's own feelings for her? He guessed that he would never know as long as the blonde was still in her thoughts.

And as he watched her body shake as she fought off an unknown demon, Sasuke wished that he'd told her how he felt long ago. Maybe things would've been different. Maybe he could've helped her more than he could now. A sudden thought occurred in his mind. _Maybe my Sharingan can see what's happening to her._

He activated his bloodline and jumped back in shock. Her whole body was consumed by a dark shadow that wrapped its snake-like arms around her throat and blood red eyes stared down at her. As his mind was reeling trying to figure out a plan of action the front door burst open and a man with green hair came rushing into the house.

He glanced at Sasuke and then at Atara. Sasuke shook his head to proclaim his innocence but Jadoku ignored him. He pulled out a large sword from its sheath on his back and pointed it at Atara's body. He closed his eyes and muttered a jutsu under his breath. Time seemed to stop as his body became rigid and Sasuke saw what looked like his spirit entering Atara's body.

Sasuke watched as a white light emitted from Atara's body and pushed the shadow back until it flew backwards and was absorbed into the sword, whose blade glowed bright green and then dulled back to silver. The spirit slowly left Atara's body and then floated back into Jadoku's body and then time seemed to start again.

Jadoku fell forward a bit before catching himself and putting the sword back in its sheath. Atara breathed in a ragged breath as her body stilled and then resumed the normal up and down breathing motion of a sleeping person. Sasuke finally deactivated his Sharingan and walked back to Atara's side. Jadoku walked up behind him and asked in a rough voice, "What happened?"

"Well, I think you saw what happened just as plain as I did," Sasuke replied angrily.

"I mean, what was she doing when he tried to take over?" Jadoku explained in a calmer voice.

"Who's he?" Sasuke asked.

"Just answer my question!" Jadoku said, annoyed with the Uchiha's attitude.

"She was just talking to me and then she just lost control of her own body," Sasuke said, still not certain what had occurred in those few minutes.

"What were you talking about?" Jadoku asked skeptically. He needed answers and currently Sasuke was the source of these answers. He'd talk to Atara later, he'd told himself with anger at her obvious involvement with Cobra. _She should've known better_, he thought to himself. But then again, had he? When he felt the strength of the demon's container originally, he couldn't resist it either. So expecting Atara, who was younger and less experienced than he had been, to know better was being a total hypocrite of him.

Sasuke eyed him before answering. "We were talking about her secluding herself from her friends because of her training requiring a lack of emotional thought. I told her that she knew better than to think that she could continue to seclude herself from everyone, because she needed the support of her friends. She looked like she was thinking about it, and maybe consulting another part of her mind about it. The next thing I know she starts shaking and falls in my lap." Sasuke shook his head as he looked at her. He remembered seeing the shadow overtaking her body and its evil red eyes and he shuddered. "What exactly happened to her?"

Jadoku looked at the serious expression on the boy's face and decided that perhaps he could tell him. He'd obviously witnessed it, and if he didn't have answers, he could be a real obstacle for Jadoku. "Can I trust that you will hold your tongue and not tell anyone about what you saw?"

"Only if you tell me what happened," Sasuke replied coldly.

_Predictable_, Jadoku thought to himself.

"Okay. A demon tried to possess her body. She must have angered him to cause him to emit such a powerful force upon her. I'm thinking that he was trying to corrupt her mind and bring her to his side slowly and deviously by bribery. Probably when you said that she couldn't be alone, she admitted that to herself. When she did, he heard her and most likely disagreed by saying that she wasn't alone or that he was still there for her. After that,…well, knowing Atara, she probably smarted off to the demon. Because he would think of himself as being superior to her, he would take her attitude as a challenge to his superiority, and therefore punish her for her insolence," Jadoku said, hitting on the truth all too closely.

Sasuke wondered how he could randomly come up with an exact explanation of the events that had taken place when he hadn't even been present at the time. There were so many questions pondering the Uchiha's head that he wondered if in all the turmoil, someone had replaced his mind with someone else's.

End: I'm sorry, but I'm going to end it here. The next chapter will include what should be a short scene at the dance and then it may, or may not, proceed with the morning of the chuunin exams. This story is coming to a close people, and to the no-review person who is now the College no-review person, I need your email so that I can tell you about a different idea that I have had about the happenings at the chuunin exams. It is very important, and awesome. 'rubs hands together malevolently'


	19. Chapter 19, The Late Arrival

**Lone Wolf**

**Intro: **Sorry for that minor setback in the plot. I'm just kidding it wasn't a setback, it will play a role in the future chapters,…I think. This chapter will contain the dance. It promises to include a very OOC Sasuke, emo-Assai, and sexy lady Atara (u get it, like the song "Sexy Lady"). Lol.

**Disclaimer:** You people already know. Don't own Naruto…yada, yada, yada.

**The Late Arrival****, Chapter 19**

A few hours later Atara woke up to find Jadoku in her kitchen cooking something and Sasuke lounging on the couch across from her. _How odd_, she thought to herself as she looked at the Uchiha in what was probably the most laid-back mood she'd ever seen him in. He'd taken off his usual blue shirt and was lying on her couch with just a white muscle shirt and his khaki shorts on. His ninja sandals were sitting beside the couch, and the Uchiha appeared to be…sleeping. _How long have I been out?_ She asked herself. She was a bit surprised but relieved when there was no reply from inside her head.

As soon as she moved, Sasuke's eyes snapped open and focused on her. Jadoku turned around more slowly from the pot on the stove and smirked at the two teens, neither of whom appeared to be willing to speak at the moment. "Well, I see you're up Atara! Did you have a good nap?" he said cheerfully, hoping to break the stony silence that had engulfed the room.

Atara rubbed her eyes and then diverted them away from Sasuke's penetrating gaze and to her sensei, who was carrying over a bowl of steaming soup. "Uh, sure,…I guess," she said uncertainly. She could only remember bits and pieces of what had happened.

She could remember this much: first, she'd back talked Cobra and he attacked her mind. She felt lots of pain and her body started shaking. She saw her world spin and felt arms catch her fall. A few minutes later, she remembered seeing unrecognizable onyx eyes that had a look of pure fear in them. Then she saw a bright light that took away the dread and despair that had overtaken her body. From there on out, she couldn't see anything. She remembered hearing voices, probably those of the two men with her now, but she could not remember all that they'd said. When she was caught by Sasuke's arms, she heard someone mutter something about not leaving her. She could've sworn it was Sasuke's voice, but there was no way he'd say something like that, right? The last she could remember hearing before completely fading out was that a demon had tried to take over her body. So technically, she hadn't had a good nap, but for the sake of both men she would lie about it for now.

"Are you okay?" Sasuke asked, trying to sound as neutral as ever but Atara heard it in his voice. He really did care about her this time. Normally, he'd just put things off as being fake or insignificant, but it was as if this incident had brought out an unknown side of the usually complacent Uchiha. Although Atara was too caught up in her own problems to realize it, she actually liked that the Uchiha had compassion for her. _He hasn't changed in all these years_, she thought to herself, remembering how he'd cared about her several years earlier, so much that he would keep her secret no matter how gruesome and dangerous it was.

She realized suddenly that Sasuke was still waiting for a response and that she was staring at him with a distant look in her eyes. No doubt he could take that as her checking him out or admiring his abs or…wait, what was she thinking this for? She had a boyfriend, and not one that only cared when someone's life was in danger, one that cared even when something as simple as a bad cuticle plagued her.

"Yes, I think," she said finally, although she wanted to say no. _No, I'm not okay! I've almost been possessed by a demon and I think he screwed with my head because suddenly I'm imagining you with your shirt off, duck-ass! That would go over great_, she laughed to her self silently.

"Oh. Okay," Sasuke said uncertainly. "Y-you scared me for a while there," he said slowly as if the words burned his tongue.

"When do you mean?" Atara asked as she took a sip of her soup. She accidentally drank too much at once and it burned her mouth. Now she really did have a burned tongue.

"Well, we were talking one second and the next you start shaking all over and, well, fall on top of me."

"Oh, well sorry about that," Atara said, smirking at the way he'd said the last part.

"No, it's okay. It wasn't your fault. If I could've I would have beat off that bastard demon myself to protect you."

"Really? That's so nice of you," Atara said mockingly.

"Yeah, Assai would kill me if I let someone mess up your pretty face right before the dance. I don't think any amount of wonderful curves can fix a messed-up face," Sasuke replied in a more light-hearted mood.

"Too bad for you then, huh?" Atara taunted. She couldn't help but smile. This was just like old times, before Sasuke's clan was massacred, that is. He'd never been the same since then. It was nice to see a bit of the younger, more innocent Sasuke coming out.

At about that time, Jadoku cleared his throat and everything returned to normal again. He was staring at Atara with a serious expression which she read perfectly. "We need to talk." It spoke loud and clear even though he hadn't spoken a single word. Atara looked down at the ground at this.

"Um, Sasuke. I think it's time you go now," she said. It sounded so rude though. She needed an excuse. "People might start a rumor if you don't." Yeah, that worked. "Oh and you might want to put your shirt _on_," she said in a lighter tone.

Sasuke nodded, grabbing his shirt from the other couch and pulling it over his head. His hair, although scrunched up by the fabric, surprisingly went back to its usual shape after the shirt was taken away. _Strange…_, Atara thought to herself, wondering if Sasuke's hair had a mind of its own. After that, he walked out the door with a small wave to both Jadoku and Atara. Once he was gone, Jadoku walked over to Atara and stood in front of her. "How long have you been meeting with this demon?" he asked sternly, but keeping his cool at the same time.

"I don't know, a week or so, I guess. Why does it matter?" Atara answered grumpily as she continued to test the soup.

"Because, the longer you've communicated, the stronger his connection with you has become. That makes it easier for him to possess you," Jadoku replied, raising his voice for emphasis.

"Wait, how do you know it's a he? It could be a female demon," Atara inquired suspiciously.

"Because…when he's not in your mind influencing your decisions, he's in mine trying to take over," Jadoku hissed out sternly.

Atara looked at him with wide eyes. She'd always wondered where the demon had come from, but never had she expected that he'd resided in her sensei. He'd masked the presence so well, compared to the two jinchuuriki that were competing in the chuunin exams. She could feel the demonic energy radiating freely from Gaara of the Sand, and even in Naruto, she caught a faint sense of it, but Jadoku…_Maybe as you grow older and more experienced you can hold it in_, she thought to herself. _I wonder if I let off that much energy when I use my shadow demon powers._

"Just stay away from him okay?" Jadoku said as he turned to leave.

"Thank you," Atara blurted out suddenly, causing her sensei to stop.

"You're welcome," he said, only turning a couple degrees to look at her from the corner of his eye.

…That evening…

Assai and Neko had met up at the ball, but Neko split off to go dance with Neji. That left Assai standing in the corner by himself. Plenty of girls were giving him begging looks, asking him to come and offer them a dance. They didn't want to cross Atara by going to Assai. He ignored them. His eyes were scanning the valley for his date who was now an hour late for the ball.

He let out a sigh and went to go get some of the spiked punch from the refreshment corner.

…Somewhere high on a hill…

She looked down at the festivities from her vantage point in the tall tree. She was sitting on the lowest branch, dressed in her red and black kimono. It had slits along the sides of it so that the bottom half fell down exposing her pale, creamy legs. This was a sight that her onlooker was enjoying quite thoroughly, not that he would admit it. Of course, she did wear shorts underneath; they were just…really short.

The boy, err man, whichever you want to call him, in the shadows cleared his throat softly and Atara perked up, turning her head towards the noise. She knew who it was even before he decided to show his face, which is why she'd ignored him.

"So, I take it you don't like big parties either?" he asked tilting his head in her direction.

"I'm just…nervous, I guess," she replied looking at the crowd that had gathered below. It wasn't the crowd she feared but rather the uprooting of the feelings that she'd tried to conceal and quench until they were almost nonexistent. If she went down there, she knew that they would all bubble up again and ruin her concentration for her match tomorrow.

"Atara," the teen standing at the base of the tree said in a firm voice. Atara turned to look at him shyly, regrettably. "You are a strong person, and I know how hard you've been training recently. But it's just a dance, and as long as that's all it becomes, you should be fine for tomorrow's match," he continued and Atara slid down out of the tree to land right next to the Uchiha.

"But what if Assai wants it to be more than just the dance? I can't just say no!" Atara said, not caring that she was revealing her sexual attraction to Assai to a boy that liked her almost as much as the blonde did.

Sasuke shrugged indifferently. "If the match matters that much to you, you will have to say no. You have to choose, Atara," he said seriously, not revealing any emotions in his voice, although his eye twitched slightly at her comment.

Atara looked down. She knew this to be a fact, but how could she choose? She didn't want to hurt Assai by leaving him alone at the dance where she was supposed to meet him, but she didn't want to lose focus for her match tomorrow either. Finally, she sighed and nodded her head to herself. "Thanks Sasuke," she said simply before walking towards the festivities. Sasuke was right: she'd have to say no, but what she'd say no to was anyone's guess.

At the bottom of the hill, music was playing and all of the prospective chuunins, their friends, and their teachers were frolicking around the clearing. Atara caught sight of Neko, who was in Neji's arms as they were sharing a passionate kiss on the outskirts of the lighted area. Sitting on a far bench, however was an almost unrecognizably sorrowful blonde-haired ninja.

Atara looked at him with sympathy. She hadn't meant to hurt his feelings. As she walked towards him, many girls shied away from her, casting their glances back to Assai before turning and walking away. The blonde seemed oblivious to her presence until one girl gasped and ran away. Assai looked up suddenly and his eyes fell on his girlfriend.

She looked absolutely breathtaking. Her usually straight black hair had been curled and put in a bun with a long tendril hanging on either side of her face. Her long kimono was black with red flowers outlined in white and the trimming was red with a thin white outline. The neckline varied from the usual kimono style as it was a plunging V-neck, which helped reveal Atara's stunning cleavage. Around her neck she wore a moon necklace with a dark red ruby in the middle. Her eyes, usually a bright red appeared darker in this dim light, giving her an all-together attractiveness that captivated Assai.

"I'm sorry for being late. I had to fix my hair," she lied in a sweet voice that fooled Assai. She couldn't tell him that she'd almost skipped out on him.

"Well, it was certainly worth your time," the blonde said as he stood and took her hand in his, kissing it softly before wrapping his arms around her waist. "Do you want to dance?" he asked as a slow song began to play.

Atara smiled a genuine smile and nodded her head. They got closer together and held each others free hand while Assai's other hand rested on Atara's waist and Atara's on Assai's shoulder. Many other couples pooled in around them as they all started to dance to "A Moment like This" by Kelly Clarkson, the song that was currently playing.

After arriving at the party, time seemed to fly by for the two lovers. Eventually it got late and Atara wanted to go home. Despite what her mind was telling her, Atara allowed Assai to walk her home. When they got to her door, Atara started to walk into her house but Assai stopped her.

He caught her wrist and pulled her into him. Atara was stunned at first. He had never been this arrogant before. "Let me come in with you," he said in a seductive voice that sent tremors down Atara's spine. She looked at him wide-eyed. She couldn't let him in. If she let him come in her house with her, she knew what would happen and losing focus this late in the game would certainly hamper her performance in tomorrow's match.

Assai seemed to take her silence for a "yes" and he pushed her up against the half-opened door, causing them to enter her house. "Assai—," Atara started before his lips came crashing down onto hers, effectively taking her breath away. She was tempted to kiss him back but she thought against it and squeezed her eyes together before placing her hands on Assai's firm chest and pushing him away.

"Come on, just this one time, please...," he said in that same low voice that made Atara feel too much. He came back to her but this time rested his hand in the small of her back making Atara lean into him. Her breathing came heavier now as she became nervous. She couldn't say the words that she needed to say to him. She didn't have the heart to turn him down although she knew that she had to.

Assai was kissing her neck now and he had reached for the zipper on the front of her kimono. He was starting to pull it down when a shuriken flew through the open door, slicing his hand open and causing him to recoil it in shock and pain. He turned to see a raven-haired boy his own age wearing a black tuxedo, but wielding two more shuriken in his right hand. "Sasuke…what do you think you're doing?" Assai hissed out angrily.

At first it looked like the frowning Uchiha would not respond but then he motioned with his head at Atara, who looked relieved at Sasuke's intrusion. Assai looked and saw this same expression and his anger lessened. "Don't you know when to stop?" Sasuke asked in a cool tone, although his facial and bodily expression stated that he wanted to rip the blonde's head off right now.

Assai looked back at Atara with shame. He reached out to touch her face but she turned away from him and looked down at the floor. Feeling defeated, Assai turned and walked away, brushing past Sasuke, who stood absolutely still waiting for him to leave.

"Thank you," Atara said in a low, solemn voice once Assai was gone.

"Are you okay?" Sasuke asked, nodding in response to her comment. He tried not to show any emotion but Atara could tell that he was sincere.

"Yes, but that was a close one."

"You really can't say no, can you?" Sasuke asked, with a look of amusement (???) on his face.

"No, I can't," Atara replied causing Sasuke to smirk. She was too stunned to realize the hidden meaning behind his smirk.

"Well, you better go get some sleep. You're going to need it if you want to beat me tomorrow," Sasuke said, returning back to his usual tone.

"Right, same to you," Atara replied with a smirk as she, too returned her voice to its normal tone. Sasuke gave her a small wave before walking away and Atara walked inside her house and locked her door behind her.

**End: That's the 19 chapter of Lone Wolf. It's amazing, this was my first story to publish but I'm closer to finishing some of my last ones than I am this one. However this one is coming to a close. I am considering a sequel but it will be a long time before that one comes out. It will probably be after I finish the six others that I'm working on right now and start the next set of six. I actually have about three chapters each on all six of those so they will come along pretty quickly, or at least they should. It all depends on how my muse treats me. (She's evil most of the time: causing me to have all this homework and no time to write!)**


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